Opposition stays away from politics of beef ban, lynchings

RAMGARH (JHARKHAND): In a barely furnished small house which opens into the street of a predominantly Muslim village, Mariam Khatoon holds her head in agony. During the last two years, since her husband was lynched to death, a lot happened— one of her daughters dropped out of school, one of her young sons died of an undiagnosed illness and she developed an incurable headache.


“But none of the politicians, who had come at the time of the incident and assured me that they will do something for my children, visited us in the last two years,” says Khatoon whose husband Alimuddin Ansari was killed, in June 2017, by self-styled ‘gau rakhshaks’ (cow vigilantes) for allegedly carrying beef in his vehicle.

The murder of Ansari in Manua village and other half a dozen Muslims over the suspicion of smuggling beef in other parts of Jharkhand, triggered national outrage after the Modi government banned the slaughter of cattle for trade in 2017. In the last two years, the

lynchings

of Muslims over beef remained a major political issue for the opposition in the state and New Delhi too.

Another political controversy in the case erupted when union minister Jayant Sinha garlanded the Ansari murder accused, incidentally residents of his constituency in Hazaribagh, after they were released on bail by the high court last year. Sinha was hauled over the coals by the opposition when a video of the celebrations was circulated on social media.

“But now during the 2019

Lok Sabha elections

, the opposition has been refraining from talking about it because they fear that it will alienate Hindu votes in Jharkhand,” a Ramgarh resident said.

In Jharkhand where Muslims constitute over 14 percent of the population, Congress has forged a ‘mahagathbandhan’ with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik (JVM), Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and is hopeful to give a tough fight to the BJP.

Though most Muslims including Ansari’s family in Manua village have decided to vote for the Congress, Khatoon does not understand the politics behind the silence of the opposition over the issue. “I will ask everyone who comes here for votes where they were for the last two years and why they are not talking about my dead husband and the fear we live in,” she says with tears welling up in her eyes.

There is no breadwinner in the Ansari family after their son died early this year. Relatives and neighbours have been helping her to sustain Khatoon’s family.

A group of women from the neighborhood gathered near her house say that though Hindus and Muslims continue to live in harmony in the village, the Modi government has been blatantly “communal” and “discriminatory” against Muslims.

“Indira Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and their entire dynasty treat everyone equally. Indira Gandhi used to take every community along but Modi government kills Muslims. If he wins again, he will kill more Muslims,” says a Muslim woman wearing a saffron saree.