--classstrugggle-flipmag CS May-2019 MKP | Page 20

Political and Economic Notes: BJP Government Penalises People for Its Fault On coming to power in the states and at the centre the B.J.P. has been aggressively pushing its Hindutva religious agenda, even using state coercion against people besides using its lumpen forces to make physical attacks, violence and even murders on the people arbitrarily. One of its brand politics is ‘gauraksha’ (cow protection). With such a ruse it has been deliberately making every effort to suppress and oppress the minority people that do not belong to Hindu religion or who differ with the opinions of Hindutva bigots. Many state governments gave free run to cow vigilantes resulting in the right-wing Hindutva groups attacking cattle traders, in some cases lynched them and even went to the extent of murdering cattle traders as happened in Alwar, Rajsthan in 2017 with the connivance of police who are supposed to maintain law and order against violence including mob violence of any kind. With a zero-tolerance approach to cow transportation, banning and shutting down slaughter-houses traditionally run for a very long-time, terming them as illegal slaughter houses. The problem of stray cows in the country has been considerably increased. These stray cows roam the street of villages, towns and even metros and even destroy crops in their wake. It is estimated that there are around 5 million stray-cows in the country. 20 With shutting down the slaughter-houses the U.P. state government not only did nothing to find any alternative means of livelihood for the marginal small traders, business men and their employees of meat trade, but had closed the avenues for the cattle owners to dispose their unproductive animals. In the past they used to sell unproductive animals to slaughter houses. The illogical decision of the U.P. state government upset the dynamics of the meat trade in the state with backward linkages. Under these circumstances the cattle owners left with no alternative found it more convenient to simply abandon the unproductive animals on the roads. The end result of the government’s decision is while small traders associated with meat industry got a severe jolt, farmers also suffered. Desperate farmers especially in western UP, started locking-up abandoned cattle in schools and government buildings for fear of crop damage. Naturally these cattle are dying of starvation or asphyxiation. This is the un- denying result of the U.P. government’s zealous policies of ‘protection of sacred cow’. This illogical decision has destroyed a cultural affection for cows that has happily coexisted with trade in cattle for ages. Now, instead of rectifying its illogical policies and decisions of ‘gauraksha’ the BJP’s state government has chosen to penalise people by imposing ‘gauraksha’ cess of 2 per cent on excise items. This apart, a 0.5 per cent is levied on state operated tolls. The government has also increased levy on the tax revenue of UP agricultural marketing board or Mandi parishad from 1 per cent to 2 per cent. The money is to be used to set up and run “gauna- nshashrayasthals” (or cattle shelters) in villages, panchayats, municipalities, municipal corpo- rations, that will be run by civic bodies and are aimed at tackling the ‘growing menace of stray cattle’ in the state. Additionally, money from the MNREGA scheme intended to provide employment to the rural poor, will be used to fund these cow-sheds. Also, eight profit- making public-sector undertakings like Setu Nigam (Bridge Corporation) and UP state industrial development corporation (UPSIDC) will now have to contribute 0.5 per cent of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) kitty towards this cow-shelter scheme. Mohamad-bin-Tughluk imposed Jijia Tax (tax on hair growing) has remained as a mad emperor and anti-people ruler forever. Now the BJP rulers in their zeal of implementing one brand of their politics of Hindutva bigotry are out doing the ‘mad’ emperor with unheard irrationality in the history penalising the already suffering people with umpteen irreconcilable problems created by these rulers! Such irrational anti-people policies of BJP rulers shall not only be abhorred but shall also be vehemently opposed by people! ™ Class Struggle