India: emboldening of cow vigilantes - shocking attack on police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr

The Times of India, December 5, 2018

Editorial

Lawless UP: Bulandshahr attack on police follows a systemic emboldening of cow vigilantes

The shocking attack on police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district by a mob protesting alleged cow slaughter highlights the extent to which cow vigilantes have been emboldened. Trouble began after locals from Mahav village allegedly found cow carcasses in a nearby forest. This led to a right-wing protest against the police which went out of control. Subsequent violence saw Syana station officer Subodh Kumar Singh being killed after he took a bullet to his head. There was police firing and an agitator also died, as the mob set several vehicles on fire and torched the Chingrawati police outpost.

The mayhem follows from a culture of impunity that cow vigilantes have come to enjoy in states like UP, where police often don’t even prosecute their crimes sincerely. What the Bulandshahr episode exposes is that the monster is running wild now and can hardly be controlled by any political masters. Meanwhile, from Mohammad Akhlaq to Pehlu Khan, most victims of cow vigilantism are yet to see the light of justice with their cases proceeding at glacial pace. In fact, those accused of killing Akhlaq are out on bail and one of them has even announced his intention to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In an atmosphere where vigilante groups feel emboldened to take the law into their own hands, Bulandshahr shows them turning on the law itself.

This will worsen conditions for an already ailing cow economy. For a country with the highest population of cattle in the world, slaughtering of unproductive animals or disposing of carcasses ought to be routine activities. But encouraged by BJP politics, vigilantism has really hurt the trade in cattle – which employs lakhs of people. Reports of unproductive cows roaming the countryside and becoming pests for farmers exemplify a worrying breakdown of the cow-centred animal husbandry sector.

And UP appears to be at the heart of the problem. The state’s huge unemployed youth population not only provides foot soldiers to cow vigilante groups but security here also remains in a shambles. The Yogi Adityanath government’s so-called encounter killing drive highlights a police force and a political leadership that have run out of ideas to fix broken systems. Instead, their ham-handed approach is making the law and order situation worse. Perhaps Adityanath would do well to heed opposition advice to campaign less outside his state and focus on his UP chief minister’s job.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.