Wanna eat beef ? Go to Pakistan : Fresh staple from the BJP
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 25 2015 -

Talking gibberish. Yet another extremely quotable quote from the stable of the BJP, which is heading the Government at Delhi.

Can’t survive without eating beef ? Go to Pakistan.

A gem of a statement delivered by none less than the Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Coming as it did from the mouth of a BJP leader, the statement cannot be just brushed aside that easily.

It was also more than non-sensical for the honourable Minister was not only tom-tomming a Hindutva concept but in many ways exposed the true colours of the BJP.

Every knows the utility of a bull or a cow but why come out with such an outlandish statement ?

An indication that the BJP as a party is yet to come to terms with the secular credential of the country or was Naqvi playing to the gallery, hoping to earn some brownie points on the eve of the Narendra Modi Government completing one full year of being in office ?

Either way such a mentality sucks and cannot be digested. India is more than a country of the Hindus or Hinduism.

Or was it a case of Naqvi refusing to move out from the Hindi heartland mentality, refusing to acknowledge that India stretches beyond the Brahmaputra in the east and the Vindhyas in the south.

As pointed out here on earlier occasions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will need to wake up to the distasteful truth that the biggest obstacle to the Government will not come from outside but from within.

How well Modi manages to walk the tight rope and not give any room to the hard core elements will greatly decide the fate of the BJP led Government.

From desecrating Churches, playing with the religious sentiments of the minorities to telling everyone who wants to eat beef to leave the country, the BJP has certainly managed to live up to its not so charitable tag that it is a political party only concerned with championing the beliefs of one religion.

On the face such an approach may not sound blasphemous, but it should not come at the cost of the secular image of the country.

Asking anyone who wants to eat beef to either go to Pakistan or an Arab Nation is not only an insult on the taste bud of any particular community but also tantamount to ribbing neighbouring countries.

Wonder how the BJP would react if any country says that anyone who cannot forgo fish should go to West Bengal or Tandoori chicken to Punjab !

And how about the people of the North East ?

No one has the right to dictate what people should or should not eat.

This is against the very understanding of an India, which is home to numerous religious beliefs and different communities.

It is the refusal to look beyond one’s immediate interest that has been the bane of India for decades.

Beef should not and cannot be the agenda of a political party, especially a party which is in power at Delhi.