Is life of cow more precious than human life? Gau Mata should be differentiated from commercial cow.

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: Three soldiers were killed in an accident and two others sustained injuries as the army ambulance carrying them hit a stray cow that suddenly came in front on the Abohar-Delhi national highway near Malout on Thursday.

This is not an isolated incident. Spate of such cases have been reported in Punjab during the last few months.

Residents cutting across social, religious and political lines staged dharna for days in Mansa against the stray cow menace following series of deaths in cow related incidents some time back. There is no improvement in the situation, not only in Mansa but anywhere else too.

The stray cattle, mainly the cows, are taking over the highways in northern India, what to talk of the villages.

Punjab panchayats and rural development minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa some weeks back called for identifying the holy of ‘mother’ cow. He had hit the nail on the head.

Similar assertion was made by the Hindu organisations in Mansa during the agitation.

The issue is at the core of the problem that is multiplying every day especially following the ban on cattle transportation that has led to several cases of lynching, mainly of the Muslim traders and dairy farmers.

Cow in India is a political animal and has been milked by the politicians for too long. The stray cow is posing the biggest challenge to human settlements across India.

Dairy farmers in Punjab have started reverting to native buffalo for milk.

The stray cows in Punjab are not of the native cow variety that is revered as the ‘Gau Mata’. The dairy farmers in Punjab and elsewhere too prefer cows of the imported Jersey breed whose yield is high. This is imported breed is not the Gau Mata but its trade too is banned.

It is high time to differentiate between the Gau Mata variety cow and the imported high yielding breed. It may be mentioned that the ‘Gau Mata’ yields very less milk and hence the farmers prefer the cross bred ones.

The cattle used to yield additional income to the farmers apart from milk as the one who stopped giving milk would be sold to the beef traders. That income has stopped. That is one aspect. The farmers can’t feed such animals as it would make dairy farming uneconomical. They have to loosen such cattle which roam about in the fields and on the roads.

The recent political developments have provided clear indications that the religious and nationalist issues have stopped dictating the political discourse. Every issue has its own life. With the Babri Masjid issue having been adjudicated in favour of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, the religio-political discourse is now witnessing a shift.

Beef being among the cheapest source of protein is altogether a different issue although this should be the basic one in a country where children are malnourished.

The basic issue is the treatment that is given to the cow related issues over the human life.

The centre should come up with a policy on ‘Gau Mata’ in view of the increasing deaths in road accidents caused by stray cows. The series of deaths over a period of about three months in Mansa sparking agitation is a pointer to the gravity of situation. This is happening all over Punjab where the number of cattle is high. The problem is no less acute in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where the farmers have started fencing their fields at extra cost to save their crops from the stray cattle.

Every cow on the road is now Gau Mata and the centre should come up with a well-defined policy. The ‘Gau Mata’ variety must be unambiguously defined. That would also help the ‘Gau Mata’ in the long run as these cows won’t have to feed on plastic bags.

There has been enough politics over it. The focus should revert to safety of humans.

Alternatively, every Bhakat should shelter at least two ‘Gau Matas’ at home as part of the religious responsibility.