Beef killings are back: Tough poll season?

A fresh spurt of killings and attacks on people by cow vigilantes in recent weeks in different states have again highlighted the dangers of a wrong and hate-driven phenomenon witnessed in the country over the last 10 years.

Haryana has seen a surge in cow vigilantism with two killings, and Maharashtra saw an attack on an old man on a train, committed by persons who had taken upon themselves the task of punishing cow smugglers and beef-eaters.

The latest tragic incident is the killing of a 16-year-old boy, Aryan Mishra, near Faridabad in Haryana. It was a case of mistaken religious identity, but it showed how an idea, bad in itself, can get misdirected in various ways. Before Aryan Mishra, a migrant worker, Sabir Malik, was beaten to death in Chakri Dadri by cow vigilantes on suspicion that he ate beef.

A 72-year-old man was attacked on a train near Thane by some youth on suspicion that he was carrying beef. 

Cow vigilantism has religious hatred writ on it and is directed against Muslims. It has become an excuse to physically attack and even kill Muslims.

Even people who legally buy cattle and transport them are attacked and lynched by vigilante mobs. It has happened mostly in states ruled by the BJP, where the political environment is conducive for hate crimes.

The police often ignore complaints of vigilante action, and there are cases of a nexus between the police and the vigilantes.

Even when cases are registered, milder provisions of the law are invoked against the offenders and many are acquitted.

Victims and their families are harassed. Gangs which have organised themselves as ‘gau rakshaks’ have a network in many states and act on the basis of rumours or prejudice and malice.

If the cow is a sacred symbol in the religion, vigilantism has turned out to be a symbol of a criminalised sentiment that promotes violence and hatred in the name of the cow. No-one has the right to take the law into their hands to punish people for imagined crimes. 

The Supreme Court has issued guidelines on how to deal with cow vigilantism and directives for their strict enforcement.

But governments have not shown any enthusiasm for implementing the law, mainly because cow vigilantism, like other kinds of vigilantism in the name of love jihad, land jihad, etc., is politically useful for them.

That is why the vigilante groups operate with impunity. Many vigilantes are political functionaries at the lower levels.

Those accused in vigilante cases have been fielded in elections and garlanded and feted by Union ministers in public.

The incidents in Haryana should also be seen in the light of the election to be held in the state next month.