NEW DELHI: An attempt by India’s government to pull a ban through parliament on Thursday outlawing the slaughter of cows ended with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) shelving the bill after a ruling party fissure.

The government’s first attempt to introduce the bill seeking to impose a nationwide ban on bovine slaughter failed when several members of the ruling coalition NDA joined leftist opposition groups to oppose it.

Members of regional groups in the NDA, like the Trinamool Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK), denounced the cow-kill bill, along with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

An embarrassed government was forced to withdraw the motion, and announced it would call an all-party meeting to seek consensus on the bill.

The Cows (Prevention of Cruelty) Bill 2003 provides for a prison term of up to five years, and a fine of 10,000 rupees ($222) for the killing of a cow.

Cows evoke strong, contradictory feelings in India, as orthodox Hindus revere the bovine as “Gomata” (Mother Cow). Cow urine and dung form important ingredients for several Hindu religious ceremonies.

In 1966, naked Hindu monks demanding a ban on the slaughter of cows fought pitched battles using swords and tridents with police outside the federal parliament resulting in eight deaths.

Reports of cow killings means serious trouble, at least in northern India. A group of people belonging to the dalit (oppressed) community were lynched in the northern state of Haryana some months ago for skinning a dead cow.

Even the word “beef” is like a red flag before a bull for

Hindu zealots, who targeted a McDonald’s restaurant in the western Indian city of Baroda in January, because it put up a sign saying it did not serve beef.

The protestors demanded the removal of the sign because it gave the impression that beef was edible.

But edible it is, not only for Muslims and Christians, but for a large number of poor Hindus and animist tribals in the lowest rungs of India’s caste ladder, desperate for the cheap nutrition bovine provides.

Simply stated, the proposed ban threatens to cause serious social friction in India.

This was the reason founders of the Indian constitution did not incorporate a ban on cow slaughter, but instead left it to the Directive Principles of State Policy, which contains desirable future goals that may not be immediately implemented.

Also the protection of livestock is not a federal subject, but is left to India’s states to pass laws against cow slaughter. Except for southern Kerala, eastern West Bengal and five northeastern states, all others — including predominantly Muslim Jammu and Kashmir — have laws against the cow slaughter.

But in the case of northern Uttar Pradesh, it makes exceptions for sterile, old and sick cattle allowing them to be killed.

The proposed bill seeks to ensure a uniform law against cow slaughter is implemented all over the country.

Opposition groups also see the bill as a pre-election stunt aimed at wooing Hindu voters in the legislative assembly elections in some states in a few months, and parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.

Former parliament speaker Purno Sangma warned the bill, if it comes into effect as a law, could trigger a food crisis in the northeastern states like Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland where beef is a cheap staple.

Kancha Ilaiah, an academic belonging to the dalit community from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said such a ban would have momentous consequences as, “90 per cent of dalits in southern India eat beef. Most of the poor would starve to death if there is a ban”.

S.S. Kumar, chairman of the Council of Leather Exporters, warned the ban would badly hit 1.5 million people working in the leather industry.

But Hindu zealots are not moved by the arguments.

“I see the cow issue as a part of the global struggle against jehadi fundamentalism,” said Devendra Swarup, an ideologue of the radical Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

Ghuman Mal Lodha head of the government’s Council for Animal Welfare says even sterile cows are economically viable as their urine and dung could be processed for medical purposes.

But this has not impressed the mostly-Hindu cattle owners who abandon sterile animals on roads, particularly in states where there is a ban on cow slaughter.

In New Delhi and other parts of India, cows can be seen foraging in the garbage dumps and blocking busy roads.

Columnist C.R. Irani said the law would not mitigate the suffering of cows, as a slaughter ban would only lead to more economically unviable livestock being left to fend for themselves and becoming a nuisance to people.

“If the cow is their mother, why don’t they keep her at home instead of allowing her to eat garbage,” quips social activist Udit Raj, pointing out the contradiction in the orthodox Hindu viewpoint.—dpa