Meghalaya leader quits, BJP unfazed 

• ? BJP’s Meghalaya unit office-bearer Bernard Marak, who had announced a beef party in his hometown to celebrate Modi’s three years in office, quit over new cow-slaughter rules alleging these violated culture of indigenous people
•  “I quit the party as it is trying to impose its ideology on us. What’s wrong if we planned to celebrate the third anniversary in our traditional way?” Marak was quoted as saying
• ? BJP leaders, however, say they are not worried because the beef-eating population in the country is only around 2%

NEW DELHI/TARAKESHWAR (TIP): The row over beef eating and cattle trade kept the political cauldron astir today despite Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s attempt to calm frayed tempers by insisting the new Central notification will not interfere with state laws on slaughtering animals.

Following several days of protests, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Jaitley told a press conference in New Delhi that the ban imposed by the Centre on sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter had nothing to do with state legislations.

The animal markets are meant for farmers and not for traders, he said, adding that “This is the only effect of the notification.”

“Every state has its own legislation or no legislation (with regard to slaughter of cattle). You have provision in the Constitution Article 48 (Directive Principles) which says that certain category of animals have to be protected,” Jaitley said.

Prohibition of cow slaughter mentioned in Article 48 of the Constitution is not an enforceable Article, but a Directive Principle of State Policy. West Bengal’s feisty Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been at the forefront of the Opposition’s attack on the ban, added a new twist to the row, claiming the Centre was planning to omit buffalo from the ambit of its notification to favour “certain people close to BJP” involved in trade of its meat. “Some people close to the BJP are involved in the buffalo meat trade and that is why, they (Centre) are planning to allow the slaughter of buffaloes,” she told a public meeting in Tarakeshwar in West Bengal.

Assailing vigilantism in the name of cow protection, she said, “The BJP has got only 29 per cent of the votes, but they are trying to bulldoze the masses. Who are they to decide what one will eat? Who are they to decide what one will wear It is a matter of personal choice.” Source: PTI