Only if and when PM Modi commands?

India is a democracy, with established institutions looking after law enforcement and dispensing of justice. Why should it be rendered hostage to dictatorial impulses?

Now that PM Narendra Modi has spoken against the Gau Rakshaks – certainly a welcome development, a new political storm has been kicked up. There are those who feel vindicated in the sense that the BJP represents the retro and dark forces in our polity. Then there are those who feel that the PM has either not said-and-done enough or his condemnation is mere eyewash. They further argue that there was nothing new in his statement. It has been well known that the Gau Raksha movement is essentially a veil behind which anti-social elements are trying to gain social acceptability and political legitimacy, even using it to shield their darker deeds – done during the nights, as PM Modi pointed out – from the law enforcing agencies. The talk of plastic killing more cows than actual cow slaughter, or that those who really love the cow could have come forward to provide shelter, fodder and medical care for the bovines, are considered commonsensical enough to be not reiterated. Some even point out that Narendra Modi had spoken the language of the secular parties who had been making such statements all along. Then, there are dark hints that PM Modi felt obliged to come up with this condemnation after his friend Barack Obama’s spokesman expressed concern over the growing violence and fanaticism over the issue of cow slaughter. Another argument points towards the power struggle between the mainstream saffronites represented by the BJP-RSS combine and the ‘lunatic fringe’ comprising VHP and similar other outfits which now feel that they have been marginalized.

There could have been other, non-political, compulsions too. If this business of Gau Raksha goes out of control there would be an immense damage done to the tannery industry – which makes a substantial contribution to the exchequer as well as the GDP. In India, thanks to the still extant caste taboos, not everybody takes up the odious task of collecting the cadavers and skinning them. This is generally done by poor Muslims and Dalits. What they do is lawful and legitimate. Yet they are being terrorized. Just imagine the escalation of chaos in the already chaotic job market if about three million people (estimated to be employed in this industry) are rendered jobless. It is not just those directly employed, but others like truck drivers, contractors, and traders too will be badly affected. Thanks to these Gau Rakshaks, there is panic in this industry now. And uncertainty pervades in in such other industries as soap and detergent, which uses tallow as an important ingredient. In fact, many soap and detergent manufacturing units in Ludhiana have reportedly shut shop and migrated to the non-BJP ruled states, thanks to these goons.

Further, if this sort of vigilantism is tolerated by the state, the rule of law will become an object of derision. In some parts of the country, this has already begun to happen. As per a report by the NDTV, vigilante groups and police – especially in small towns and villages in Maharashtra – have developed a nexus. They would impound the cattle – even those not destined for slaughterhouses – belonging to Dalits and Muslims and sell these off, and pocket the proceeds. The next step would have been more brazen looting of the vulnerable sections of the society. Therefore, it makes sense that PM Narendra Modi broke his silence over the issue and called a halt to this dangerous trend.

But the question arises – will the law take its course only if and when the Prime Minister of India would give the call? Isn’t this against the basic tenets of democratic functioning? By allowing the PM to decide if and when the justice-dispensing/law-enforcing agencies would take cognizance of an offence, aren’t our democratic institutions being neutered and rendered hostage to dictatorial inclinations? Why should the Prime Minister be doing a job that should have been done by a local Station House Officer according to the law and constitutions of India? Is the ordinary citizen of this country doomed to be eternally at the mercy of the lawless and the corrupt? Clearly, there is a dire need for systemic changes in our policing and law-enforcement structures. More importantly, the attitudes at the highest political-bureaucratic levels need total transformation. Will this ever happen?

We shall wait and watch.