Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju known for stirring controversies rakes up another by saying that he is against cow slaughter ban in India.
The former chairman of the Press Council of India with his sensationalising comments on his blog said:
“India will never progress unless people start thinking rationally.” Saying that cow is a mother is nonsense and humbug. “How can an animal be a mother of a human being?”
1. I see nothing wrong in eating beef. Most of the world eats beef. Are they all wicked people?
2. Beef is a source of cheap protein, and many people in India, e.g. in the Northeastern states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, etc and in some other states like Kerala, eat beef where its sale is not banned.
3. I have myself sometimes eaten beef. I normally do not eat it out of respect for my wife and other relatives, as they are conservative Hindus. But if the occasion arises I will again eat it. I am not forcing others to eat beef, but why should others prevent me? There should be freedom to eat what one wants in a free democratic country.
4. Such bans make us a laughing stock before the whole world by displaying our backward feudal mindset
5. Those who raise a hue and cry against cow slaughter are not at all bothered by the suffering of tens of thousands of cows which are not properly fed. When cows grow old or for some other reason can no longer give milk they are often driven out and left to fend for themselves. I have seen cows eating filth and garbage by the side of roads. I have seen cows so thin that their ribs are protruding out of their flesh. If cows are made to starve is that also not cow slaughter? But nobody is bothered about that.
Taking a dig at BJP government for banning beef in Maharashtra
“I regret to say that such bans are nowadays more for political considerations than anything else. For instance, in Maharahshtra there was already the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976 which prohibited slaughter of a cow ( which was defined to include a male or female calf ) but permitted slaughter of bulls, bullocks and buffaloes on obtaining a ‘fit for slaughter’ certificate. But now by a new law effective from 2.3.2015 sale and export of beef has been totally prohibited, causing loss of many jobs”, he writes on blog.