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| Ticking Beef time bomb threatens to blow Jammu and Kashmir apart ? | | | M.M.Khajooria | 10/14/2015 12:06:49 AM |
| Jammu and Kashmir High Court has initiated action in compliance of the Supreme Court directive dated 03 October, 2015 to resolve the Beef Issue . According toNews papers reports, a three judge bench comprising of Justices Muzzafar Hussain Attar , Ali Mohd Magrey and Tashi Rabstan has been constituted for the purpose. The matter was listed for hearing on 16th October, 2015. So far so good. The paper further reported that;
"The bench has been constituted after the Supreme court kept in abeyance for two months the September 9 order of the Jammu Division Bench of the High Court directing the Police authorities to enforce a BEEF BAN THAT HAS BEEN ON THE BOOKS FOR OVER A CENTURYBUT NOT ENFORCED". It is to be hoped that this is not how the issue before the Hon'ble High court is framed for the simple reason that the projection is historically and factually incorrect. Section 298A etc of the Ranbir Penal Code under contest was inserted in 1932. Since then citizen across all divides have complied with its provisions both in letter and spirit. Whenever and wherever violation was reported or came to notice action under law was initiated. As per press reports , a report detailing action taken under relevant sections of law was recently submitted by the Divisional Commissioner Jammu which should be on record of the Jammu Bench of the High Court. In Kashmir Division too there was general and willing compliance of the law, Even the civil society did not approve of stray violations that did take place . In my about three years tenure as District Superintendent o Police Anantnag, which then comprised of entire South Kashmir now bifurcated into four Revenue and Five Police districts only one such case came to notice. This happened in some what unusual circumstances. One morning my Driver Constable Raghunath Singh, a Dogra by extraction but settled in Kulgam for more than three generations came to my residence . He was crying. On being questioned he stated that he had gone to the Meat market for purchasing Mutton from a Butcher Shop .while he was placing order a Muslim colleague accosted him aside and told him not to make purchase from this shop. On his insistence to disclose the reason , he revealed that this particular Butcher recently arrived in the town was clandestinely selling Beef. Even he himself had purchased Mutton from the next shop. This shocked and distressed Raghunath Singh. The Muslim Constable stood guard while he rushed to report the matter to me. The matter was immediately remanded for action under law to Dy SP Afzal Ahmed, a highly competent and brave officer. He rushed to the spot found and recovered the illicit stuff. The accused was arrested and legal action initiated. More importantly, the act of the Butcher was condemned by the people of the locality. But then those were times when Wahabi elements were on the fringes almost considered as outcastes and Fundamentalist Terrorism was still in the realm of future. The situation , underwent a radical change in early nineties when full blown fundamentalist terrorism sponsored by Pakistan gripped Kashmir valley and the government machinery collapsed. The terrorists decreed and promoted the slaughter of the prohibited category of animals and open sale and consumption of its beef. In fact , this was trotted as one of the " great gains of the Jihad". Till then S. 298Aetc were very much in force. But 'The illicit cattle flesh market ' thus spawned in Kashmir was import dependent and that too through Jammu region highly sensitive to such transactions. This gave birth to Cattle Smugglers Mafia and Jammu based resistance groups. The intervention of Youth Groups committed to thwarting the nefarious designs of Cattle smugglers added another and not always pacifist dimension thereby widening the complexion, scope and extent of a campaign with significant potential of communal discord. Local authorities were since grappling with the problem. Prohibitory orders banning transportation of certain animals virtually remained permanently clamped down in Jammu till date . This enabled the State administration to contain if not fully control in Kashmir valley the open defiance of provisions of S .298A . The Judicial process will fallow its destined course and High Court will come up with its determination in due course. Obviously, whatever the judgement pronounced by the Division Bench the aggrieved party will knock at the doors of the Supreme Court. This is bound to prove time consuming. The million dollar question is how will this time be utilised? Will the disruptive elements who had a field day in post-Jammu Bench of High court order with the Kashmir main stream party leadership either cringing or indulging in competitive extremism under the cover of Right to choose food habits on the one hand and chaotic , directionless and un called for violent reaction by Jammu fringe groups on the other be allowed to further vitiate the already communally polarised societies and push the situation to the point of explosion? While some consider the intent of Kashmir leadership is suspect, I would prefer to attribute it to jinxed political priorities, moral courage deficit and jaundiced perception. This was evidenced by their response or shall be say lack of response to the highly provocative act of throwing a Beef party by a legislature in a government premises where non-Muslims also lived and dined and for whom even uttering the word Beef amounted to sacrilege read with his press statement detailing the obnoxious purpose of this despicable act .It should be remembered that earlier the same individual had proceeded to Rajouri with the declared intention of committing an act that would have set Jammu region ablaze. The situation was saved by the police who took restrained him at the Jawahar Tunnel. Of course the assault on his person during assembly session was reprehensible and rightly condemned. The BJP Dy. Chief minister rightly condemned ( disapproval may have been enough) the behaviour of his party men in assaulting the concerned legislator in the House and tendered apology presumably to the House( in instalments) . He should , however have shown some sense of realism and balance and squarely and stoutly condemned the Beef party and allied misconduct. At another level the choice for Kashmir Beef activists was between the provocative , divisive and aggressive techniques perfected by Engineer Rashid or the path of sensitivity to sentiments of others ( minorities) and brotherhood shown by Syed Ali Shah Geelani in his pre-Eid address Or will saner elements in the political class ( not many of this variety were visible) the civil societies and intelligentsia rise to the occasion and play their crucial role in salvaging , repairing and putting together whatever is left of our collective sanity so that it may become possible to attempt a restoration of traditional brotherhood and goodwill amongst the citizens of the unfortunate state of Jammu and Kashmir. As it is, some saner Kashmiri voices calling for restraint and showing sensitivity to the sentiments of the minority community were soon silenced. In nut shell, the State government had to create the necessary and favourable environment to enable the saner elements to intervene and play their positive and conciliatory role. Whatever determination is finally made by the Judiciary, the issue by its very nature had to be resolved by consensus amongst different social and community interests . Once a broad agreement( an uphill task by any standard) is arrived at the government and legislature could take over and formalise it legally. We are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that threatened to tear apart our communal and regional fabrics indeed the very existence of the State of Jammu & Kashmir , for preserving whose integrity most of us are committed to This realisation must inform our efforts at hammering out and amicable , fair , just and realistic solution to the vexed, taxing and complex problem thrown up by the stupidity of some and mischief of others |
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