Worshipping the cow, and how!
Reeta Sharma

WHAT is the whole truth about the killing of Dalits in Jhajjar? Did the Haryana police kill them or were they the victims of mob frenzy? Whatever the actual position, the fact, unfortunately, is that we have a police force in Haryana which is as feudalistic as its rulers. It is no wonder, therefore, that Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala can actually joke and laugh in a packed press conference about Haryana police officers who have been jailed or are embroiled in a large number of criminal cases.

It is indeed not relevant how many were killed by the police and how many were lynched by the mob in the presence of the police. What is important is that five hapless human beings were beaten to death either by a mob or by the police or by both. The Chief Minister did not react to this horrific incident till it became a national issue. I am sure the nation, Haryana and even the media are soon going to forget about the killings till another such incident takes place. In that eventuality, we would all return to quote this figure of five lynched. What we would forget is that such killings are never on account of any momentary reactions. They are the result of a perverted psyche, which gets built over a period of time, if it is fed on distortions in the name of religion or race.

I grew up worshipping the cow. But neither my parents and relations nor the hundreds of temples that I visited taught me what it meant to actually worship it. I learnt to feed the cow with dough as I was told that it would bless me and my wishes would come true. But I was never taught that when the cow grew old and stopped providing us milk, I should not desert it but continue to worship it by taking care of it and providing it with food. The lesson I learnt was that old and sick cows lose the power of granting a wish. Hence, I never bothered when I came across such cows lying abandoned on roads or in gaushalas. So, now when I, and many others, who I am sure have grown up with similar lessons, read a news item which says "45 cows die of eating stale food in Ferozepore," we are just likely to just tch-tch it and then forget all about it.

Why didn’t we take action against those responsible for killing these cows? If we cannot be bothered about such an incident, how can we get provoked enough to kill five human beings on the basis of a rumour that they had killed a cow? We do not even stop to verify facts and become party, as in this case, to a deceitful ploy of the police to wash their hands off the death of at least one of the boys. It is religious fanaticism that provokes us to commit heinous crimes without a second thought.

Another cause of worry is that what will happen to the carcasses of cows in Jhajjar. The cow-shed in the Hanuman temple there used to auction dead cows to the cobblers of the area. After such a gruesome and brutal incident, the cobblers are not likely to participate in the auction either in Jhajjar or anywhere else. I wonder who will take care of the carcasses in future. Will the cow- worshippers come forward and replace the cobblers and skinners?

Meanwhile, the Haryana government is busy looking for excuses to save face over these killings. The rulers (politicians and bureaucrats), however, have not failed to display their inadequacy in generating morally correct methods of collecting revenue for the state. Firstly, for ages they have been thriving on generating revenue by luring people to consume liquor. With each passing year, the number of liquor shops has been increasing. While the bureaucrats boast about the large ‘wet revenue’, they vehemently disown any responsibility for being the cause of tension in families in which men drink in a reckless manner. As if this was not enough, now the Haryana Vidhan Sabha has approved the opening of casinos in the state. It may be recalled that I had expressed my views about the repercussions of opening casinos in a society which is not yet prepared to handle them.

Riding high on the sheer strength of numbers in the Assembly, the present government has succeeded in thrusting casinos on the unsuspecting and vulnerable people of Haryana. Defending the move, the Treasury Bench said if the BJP could start them in Goa, why could not Haryana have them, too? The logic is that one wrong entitles everyone to do the second and the third wrong. The frictions, tensions and traumas within a family unit, on account of liquor consumption, have already been a major issue in the state. Casinos will only worsen the situation, the brunt of which will have to be primarily borne by women. To my mind, casinos will serve the interest of politicians, who will eventually become their indirect owners and beneficiaries.