TIL Desk/National/Guwahati/ The Assam Assembly has passed a Bill to regulate slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle, notwithstanding the walkout staged by the Opposition parties in protest against the government’s refusal to forward the legislation to a select committee.
The ruling BJP members shouted ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans and thumped desks as soon as Speaker Biswajit Daimary announced the Assam Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021 as passed. The lone Independent legislator, Akhil Gogoi, had walked out of the House when the Bill was taken up for consideration.
The Opposition Congress, AIUDF and CPI (M) had urged the government to refer the Bill to an Assembly select committee for vetting, but Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during his reply on a discussion on the legislation, rejected the proposal. Sarma, in his response, said the Bill had no bad intention and claimed it will strengthen communal harmony.
The legislation does not intend to stop anyone from consuming beef, but the person who eats so must also respect the religious sentiments of others, the chief minister said. “It can’t be that only Hindus are responsible for maintaining communal harmony, Muslims must also reciprocate,” he added.
On objection to a clause in the Bill that prohibits cow slaughter within five-kilometre radius of temples or satras, Sarma claimed that there are “kilometres and kilometres of area with no temples, and 70,000-80,000 habitations in the state have no Hindus at all”.
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