6 Bizarre Beef Ban controversies in India

Here’s a list of some of the most bizarre beef ban controversies which made headlines in Indian press. 

Four Kashmiri students were arrested on 16th March, 2016, on charges of disturbing public peace (IPC section 151) following rumours that they had cooked beef in their hostel room in a private university in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district.

Police said that the Kashmiri students were allegedly manhandled by others students and locals after the rumours of them cooking beef spread. 

“We also collected the sample of the meat which prima facie does not appear to be beef. However, the samples have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing and the report is awaited,” said the police.

The PRO of the university said no meat is not allowed in the campus. “Cooking meat is against our policy. Police is investigating the case and during the initial probe, it was clear that the substance was not beef,” Harish Gurnani, PRO of the autonomous university said.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Goa have initiated an investigation on an anonymous letter reportedly written by ISIS threatening to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The postcard threat letter was received at the State Secretariat on 19th January 2016. 

The letter has expressed anger over ban on cow slaughter in the country.

“Since you are not allowing to eat beef, you will be taken care of,” the postcard with ISIS written at the bottom said.

Goa Police said they are trying to find the source of the letter.

There was unrest among faculty and students on 20th February 2016, at Aligarh Muslim University, after a protest led by Aligarh Mayor Shakuntala Bharati and other personnel from BJP, who alleged that beef was being sold at the university's canteens.

Armed with copies of the AMU canteen's menu, which has 'beef biryani' as one of the items, BJP activists protested at the office of the senior superintendent of police. 

AMU, meanwhile, said the beef biryani mentioned in the menu is actually "buffalo biryani" as to cow meat is totally banned in the state and there is just no way it can be sold on the campus.

The RSS's online campaign to protect the cow has escalated to new heights. They have e-commerce site Myntra, owned by Flipkart in the crosshairs.

A tweet posted on 11th November 2015, from Twitter account @RSS_Org demanded that the government should act against Myntra as it sold shoes made from cow leather.

They have even asked Myntra to take such products off its catalogue. "Govt should take action against @myntra for selling cow leather shoe and hurting religious sentiments of Hindus," said @RSS_Org.

Though @RSS_Org is not the official handle of the right wing volunteer group, it counts among its followers PM Narendra Modi, FM Arun Jaitley, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, among others.

Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid was thrashed by some BJP legislators in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for throwing a beef party on 9th October 2016.

The manhandling of the MLA, who had thrown a beef party at the MLA hostel in Kashmir, came up in the Assembly as it was scheduled to take up a bill on the ban on the meat in the state. 

As BJP MLAs attacked him, several NC and Congress MLAs rushed to save him.

The assault on the floor of the House triggered an angry reaction from the opposition with National Conference leader Omar Abdullah saying it was impossible to digest the incident.  

A man in Chandigarh who was charged with murdering his seven-year-old daughter in 15 February 2014, was sentenced to death by a local court on 11th December 2015. 

Ikram Khan was charged with killing his daughter because he wanted to frame the village sarpanch in the case because they had penalized him for violating the panchayat's beef sale ban. 

Judge MM Dhonchak of Mewat district court observed that an inhuman act had been done by the convict with a view to settling scores with his enemies.