Kashmiri parliamentarian: Muslim MP assaulted by BJP for serving meat

Modi calls for peace as violence over beef ban may go out of control

NEW DELHI:

Lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to assault an opposition member in Indian Kashmir’s parliament on Thursday as the controversy over eating beef threatened to spiral out of control.

Abdul Rashid Sheikh said that about 10 to 14 BJP members “just pounced on me as soon as I entered the house”, saying he had feared for his life. Footage showed legislators rounding on Rashid, trying to hit him as others held them back.

The assault came in response to Rashid holding a provocative “beef party” to protest the government’s efforts to ban beef in the Himalayan state.

The issue ignited in the region after a top court last month ordered the long-standing but little enforced prohibition be strictly implemented.

“I have done nothing wrong,” said Rashid defending himself. “I consumed beef. It is my religious right and also my fundamental right.”

Party officials condemned the violence, but no complaint had been filed with police over the assault.

“No amount of condemnation can be enough for what happened today,” opposition leader and former Indian Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told reporters outside the assembly in Srinagar.

“Trying to beat up a member, this is the first time I have ever seen something like this in any house,” said Abdullah, whose party walked out of the chamber over the attack.

“Do I assault everyone who eats pork or alcohol?”

Thursday’s clash follows a decision last month by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to enforce a ban on eating beef. The order led to fierce protests asking for the Supreme Court to revoke the ban.

Modi calls for ‘peace’

With his party stoking conflict over a beef ban, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for religious harmony in the country.

At an election rally in the northern Indian state of Bihar, Modi appealed for Indians to ignore hate speeches.

“We must decide whether Hindus and Muslims should fight each other, or poverty,” he said. “Only peace and goodwill can take this country forward.”

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party BJP have riled opponents by calling for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. Cows are considered holy by many, but not all, Hindus, who form a majority of India’s population of 1.2 billion, and beef is eaten by some of the country’s minority Muslims and Christians, as well as many lower-caste Hindus.

PM hits out at Lalu Prasad

Modi also took a dig at his rival Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad over his controversial “beef eating” comment, The Hindu reported.

“Here (in Bihar) we don’t know what he (Lalu Prasad) has eaten…he has derogated yaduvanshis (people of yadav castea). Don’t forget that it was the yaduvanshis who had supported you and took you to power,” Modi said while addressing a rally in Munger.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2015.