AMN / New Delhi
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has criticized the new cattle slaughter rules being imposed all over the India through a gazette issued by the Government of India on May 23, terming it ‘anti-farmer’ and ‘damaging India’s economy’.
In a statement issued by JIH the Secretary General Muhammad Salim said: “we feel that the new rules for cattle slaughter are completely anti-farmer, anti-people and will hurt India’s economy. The government is surreptitiously trying to impose a countrywide ban on the slaughter of cattle by issuing the order via the Ministry of Environment as it knows that it cannot impose a total ban on beef consumption directly. By equating slaughter with cruelty and criminalizing the natural process of culling of old, infirm and unproductive cattle and buffaloes, the government has hit the dairy farming industry as according to experts nearly 40 % of their income is through the sale of unproductive cows. Another important aspect that is being ignored is that only 30% of slaughtered cattle is used for meat consumption. Rest of the 70 % is utilized to make leather, soap, toothpaste, brushes and surgical stitches. India exported Rs 30,000/- crore worth buffalo meat in 2014-15 accounting for 1% of India’s total exports. All these industries will be completely wrecked, causing huge unemployment and a great loss to the economy’’.
Salim Engineer cautioned saying: ‘’if we accept that the slaughter of cattle is criminal and its sale in markets shall only be legal if the buyer and seller confirm its sale and purchase is solely for agricultural purpose, then this logic can be extended to the sale of goats, sheep and even poultry. We demand that the government withdraws this gazette immediately and refrain from coming out with anti-farmer and anti-people policies’’.