Two more Muslims, this time women, were beaten and abused by a mob in Mandsaur, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, for allegedly carrying beef. It turned out that the meat was not beef, it was buffalo meat. The situation is becoming dire by the day in India and what is frightening is that there are hardly any voices of reason in the government, saying that these barbaric assaults must stop immediately.
Police, acting on a tipoff, were going to arrest the women for carrying beef when the mob descended and attacked them. Police said they could do nothing but watch the assault because they were outnumbered. The women were later accused of selling buffalo meat without a licence. Late last year, residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri beat 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq to death and assaulted his 22-year-old son because they had allegedly kept beef at home.
It is shocking that the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre watches these heinous assaults and does nothing. It is disturbing that the police, who are meant to protect citizens, also do nothing. In this case, they had no shame in admitting that they were outnumbered.
The cow is considered a sacred animal in India and its slaughter is banned in majority of Indian states. Law is law and citizens have to abide by it. Those guilty of violations should be prosecuted in accordance with the law. But what is unfortunate is that people are being killed and beaten up purely on the basis of suspicion and allegations.
If the government cannot protect its citizens in a democracy who will? The concept of democracy has been reduced to a farce. The police, it seems, have no other law-and-order problems to deal with other than these ‘beef runners’. It is time voices of sanity emerged to stop this lunacy.
