On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the BJP-led State Government is going to form a “cow cabinet” for the protection of the cows in the state.
Chouhan Announced on Twitter:
प्रदेश में गोधन संरक्षण व संवर्धन के लिए 'गौकैबिनेट' गठित करने का निर्णय लिया गया है।
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) November 18, 2020
पशुपालन, वन, पंचायत व ग्रामीण विकास, राजस्व, गृह और किसान कल्याण विभाग गौ कैबिनेट में शामिल होंगे।
पहली बैठक 22 नवंबर को गोपाष्टमी पर दोपहर 12 बजे गौ अभ्यारण, आगर मालवा में आयोजित की जाएगी।
We have decided to set up a ‘cabinet’ for the protection and promotion of cattle in the state.Animal Husbandry, Forest, Panchayat and Rural Development, Revenue, Home and Farmers Welfare Department will be included in the Cow Cabinet.The first meeting will be held on November 22 at 12 noon on Gopashtami at Gau Sanctuary, Agar Malwa.
PTI reported that notwithstanding Chouhan, the cabinet will include Home Minister Narottam Mishra, Panchayat, Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia, Forest Minister Vijay Shah, Minister for Animal Husbandry Prem Singh Patel and Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel.
They will create an action plan to increase the use of cow dung cakes. They will also encourage the making and marketing of cow products as a whole, such as cow-wood and milk.
3. Cow Vigilantism in the name of Ministry?
In recent years in India, there has been a spate of killings through mob attacks in the name of cow protection by cow vigilante groups. According to a Reuters report, a total of 63 cow vigilante attacks had occurred in India between 2010 and mid-2017, mostly since the Modi government came to power in 2014. In these attacks between 2010 and June 2017, “28 Indians – 24 of them Muslims – were killed and 124 injured“. The surge is attributed to the recent rise in Hindu nationalism in India. Many vigilante groups say they feel “empowered” by the victory of the Hindu nationalist BJP in the 2014 election.
The new cabinet will be a continuation of BJP’s efforts to promote cow vigilantism and aggressive nationalism. It promotes the dangerous idea that “cow protection” is essential to Indian nationalism. The idea of “cow protection” or “cow as mother” is used to target Muslims and Dalits who engage in the work of carrying the dead cattle, leather tanning and eat beef.
In the present day, this narrative has disenfranchised many beef-eating communities and created an idea that butchers are “polluted” or “dirty”. Because “cow protection” is also a part of hegemonic nationalism it also has rendered many communities as non-citizens. It has also encouraged violent mob lynching of Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims and communities associated with beef-eating, regardless of whether or not they eat beef or are butchers. Dalits and Muslims who make up the majority of the cattle skinners in India’s 12 billion dollar leather industry are some of the workers whose occupations made further dangerous by this narrative.
