Why the World Needs to Sit Up and Take Notice of India's War on Meat

[rug]

The anti-meat campaign cooked up to steer the nation away from its secular grounding will have profound consequences for the entire region



Muslim butchers and traders with family members gather outside a closed illegal slaughterhouse at Naini in Allahabad, India. Photo: AFP

BY VIR SANGHVI
23 APR 2017

“WHERE’S THE BEEF?” may have been a rhetorical slogan in US fast-food TV ads and presidential campaigns of the 1980s, but in present-day India it is now a deadly serious question that requires immediate attention. The government really is, actually, looking for beef.

The decades-old rhetorical catchphrase first found international fame in 1984 when US Vice President Walter Mondale made it his own during his unsuccessful campaign for the presidency.

Mondale, tapping into the popularity of the Wendy’s fast-food chain commercial, used “Where’s the beef?” to point to the insubstantial nature of his competition.

Much of contemporary Indian politics could be summed up with the same phrase, though couched in a much more literal context.

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2088866/why-world-needs-sit-and-take-notice-indias-war-meat

[msongs]

1. religion the gift that keeps on giving. nt

[rug]

2. It's as much a badge as adding "under god" to the Pledge of Allegiance was.

Last edited Mon Apr 24, 2017, 08:33 PM - Edit history (1)

With Hindu triumphalism on the rise the last two years, the divide between Hindus and the minority Muslim community has grown. While no responsible BJP leader in a position of power will attack Muslims openly, a wide range of proxy issues has emerged. Many of them are, on the face of it, nationalist rather than sectarian.

Can you really object if somebody criticises Pakistan, India’s traditional enemy and demands action against Pakistan sympathisers within India? Probably not. Which is why such attacks have been used as code phrases to cast suspicion on Indian Muslims.

Even the complex situation in Muslim-majority Kashmir is now viewed all over India in simplistic and jingoistic terms, with every Kashmir Muslim being dismissed as a traitor or a Pakistani agent.

In this climate, the campaign against beef and meat takes on a particular resonance. While many Hindus are non-vegetarians, most if not all Muslims are non-vegetarian.

Instead of communists it roots out Pakistanis.