The Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Muhammad Salim Engineer has criticised the new cattle slaughter rules being imposed all over the country through a gazette issued by the Government of India on May 23, by terming it ‘Anti-Farmer’ and ‘Damaging India’s Economy’.
In a statement on 29 May the JIH Secretary General said: “We feel that the new rules for cattle slaughter are completely anti-farmer, anti-people and will hurt India’s economy. The government is surreptitiously trying to impose countrywide ban on the slaughter of cattle by issuing the order via the Ministry of Environment as it knows that it cannot impose a total ban on beef consumption directly. By equating slaughter with cruelty and criminalising the natural process of culling of old, infirm and unproductive cattle and buffaloes, the government has hit the dairy farming industry as according to experts nearly 40% of their income is through the sale of unproductive cows.
“Another important aspect that is being ignored is that only 30% of slaughtered cattle is used for meat consumption. Rest of the 70% is utilised to make leather, soap, toothpaste, brushes and surgical stitches. India exported Rs 30,000 crore worth buffalo meat in 2014-15 accounting for 1% of India’s total exports. All these industries will be completely wrecked, causing huge unemployment and a great loss to the economy”.