The new rule notified under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act of 1960 banning cattle trade across India is clear encroachment of states’ rights. It will end federalism and will be a death knell for farmers. It is a virtual beef ban across India and also will destroy the livelihood of millions of farmers.
The states have to come up with new strategies to protect their rights enshrined by the constitution. It is time for state Chief Ministers affected by the rule to come together and protect their rights. The best man to take the lead in this matter is Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan who has been very vocal and critical of the central government’s new rules. He has written to all Chief Ministers asking them to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke the new rule. Just shooting off letters to a dictatorial Prime Minister won’t be enough. It’ not the time for prayers but for asserting the rights of the states.
In 1996 Jyoti Basu had a ‘golden opportunity’ to become the Prime Minister of India. His own party’s politburo vetoed it. Jyoti Basu had to rue later in life it as a ‘historical blunder’. Now another golden opportunity present itself to Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala to take the leadership in building a coalition in protecting federalism against the incursion and intrusion of the central government into the food plates and livelihoods of majority of India’s citizens.
He must urgently call:
- A meeting of Chief Ministers of South Indian states to ensure the smooth transfer of cattle, meat, and meat products across these states, It is a life or death matter for millions of farmers meat and meat traders of these states.
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A meeting of all Chief Ministers of India who oppose the intrusion of Central Government into the authority of the state listed under the constitution.
This is a historical juncture in the history of India. It’s time India must ask itself if it must continue to exist as a federal state or ‘cow down’ to the designs and manoeuvrings of the fascist Sangh Parivar. It is time some one must stand up right now and ask the right questions. Pinarayi Vijayan is the right candidate to do it. If he misses this ‘Golden Opportunity’, he’ll have to rue later in life like Jyoti Basu. Morever, he’ll have to regret that he let down India in this historical juncture.
India stands at a crossroads. It’s time to choose the path. One way leads to a fascist ‘Cowistan’, the other way leads to a federalist state which the builders of modern India envisioned. It’s time to choose.
Binu Mathew is the editor of www.countercurrents.org. He can be reached at editor@countercurrents.org
I wish you the best of good fortune in this alarming situation taking place in your country. What will the central government start to dictate next? Will it be clothing styles, lack of public schools for girls or people of lower castes, the diet that must be eaten in households, the crops that farmers must grow, mandatory prayer sessions or other draconian, dangerous new laws used to support fascist control?
If it looks like fascism, smells like fascism, feels like fascism and tastes like fascism, then it is so. In this case, the taste is fascist. After all, people are not allowed to taste beef and must follow the ideological rulings of one religious group of people.
This list of 14 early warning signs of fascism is chilling | indy100
https://www.indy100.com/…/donald-trump-muslim-majority-travel-ban-list-early-war…
Apr 24, 2017 – According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the date is the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew Calendar and is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. In January 2017 this image of 14 early signs of Fascism, which hangs in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, went viral for …
Washington Monthly | The 12 Early Warning Signs of Fascism
washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/31/the-12-early-warning-signs-of-fascism/
Jan 31, 2017 – If you go to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, you can see a sign hanging there that tells you what to look for if you’re worried that your country may …
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, by Lawrence Britt, Spring 2003
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism (“Fascism Anyone?,” Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist …
Please continue to rise up against ugly government ways. It does sometimes help as our own uprising in the USA against the Vietnam War demonstrated.
So have courage. Come together to make peaceful resistance plans, protect the farmers and other people in the beef industry, and stand together against this thinly disguised fascist assault on your entire country.
The right wing is out to destroy south. It has destabilised Tamil Nadu, made deep inroads into Karnataka, allied with Andhra CM and trying to co- opt Telengana. It has only Kerala mountain to climb. Hence, the CM should form a south India front with like- minded forces to vehemently oppose the cultural imperialism andbpolitical fascism of the right wing centre.
Ironically, the same Bjp is trying to woo voters of north east by upholding beef and meat products. This reflects political opportunism. There is no sincerity in the hindutva forces. Their only aim is to ‘ grab the gaddi’ !!( throne)! Actuvists should educate people on the issue