Cattle Protection: This Bill serves no good cause

When narrow politics guides social and economic policies and forms the basis of laws that influence the lives of people, the results are unsavoury. That is the case with the new Cattle Protection Bill brought by the Karnataka government and passed by the state assembly in a hurry last week without a debate. The Opposition parties had walked out in protest against the government's hurry and the lack of consultations over the bill. In the first place, there is already a cattle protection law in the state and the government is again grazing in the same field with sharper teeth, and is pushing its politics with it. The law is much more stringent than the existing one. There is more stringent penalty for violations, ranging from fines going up to Rs 10 lakh and jail terms of up to seven years. The sale and transport of cattle for slaughter is also prohibited.

The most egregious part of the law is the widening of the definition of cattle, which now includes cows, calves, bulls, bullocks and male and female buffaloes under 13 years of age. Every farm animal that is useful to the farmers and is even a part of their lives comes under the purview of the law, and farmers will not be able to sell them. Selling of animals which are past their productive age sustains the farmers’ economy. The maintenance cost of these animals might make farming more unproductive. Farmers would abandon them, as it happens in states like Uttar Pradesh, and they become a threat to the crops. The transport of cattle for any purpose will also become hazardous as that can invite the attention of the police and vigilantes. The powers given to the police for search and seizure on grounds of suspicion of sale and purchase of cattle is bound to be misused. There are legitimate fears that the law will be used to harass and persecute members of the minority communities and Dalits. Strangely, the law even seeks to give protection to vigilantes by shielding from legal action those who ‘’act in good faith’’ to serve the cause of cattle protection.

The entire idea of the law, just as the idea behind similar laws in other states, militates against the freedom guaranteed by the Constitution to choose one’s profession and means of livelihood. The right to choose one’s food should also be part of that freedom. Beef is a source of cheap nutrition for many, and to deny it to them is wrong. The legality of the law is also doubtful as courts have ruled that cattle over 15 years of age can be sold to slaughterhouses. It is a bad law with bad consequences, and it serves no good cause.