Let voices of sanity stop attacks on Muslims in India

The government’s silence, as mobs assault people for allegedly carrying beef, is shocking

Two more Muslims, this time women, were beaten and abused by a mob in Mandsaur, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, for allegedly carrying beef. Yet again, it turned out that the meat was not beef, it was buffalo meat. The situation is becoming dire by the day in India and what is frightening is that there are hardly any voices of reason in the government, saying that these barbaric assaults must stop immediately.

Police, acting on a tipoff, were going to arrest the women for carrying beef when the mob descended and attacked them. Police said they could do nothing but watch the assault because they were outnumbered. The women were later accused of selling buffalo meat without a licence. Late last year, residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri beat 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq to death and assaulted his 22-year-old son because they had allegedly kept beef at home. The meat turned out to be mutton. It is shocking that the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre watches these heinous assaults and does nothing. It is disturbing that the police also do nothing. In this case, they had no shame in admitting that they were outnumbered.

The cow is considered a sacred animal in India and its slaughter is banned in majority of Indian states. Law is law and citizens have to abide by it. Those guilty of violations should be prosecuted in accordance with the law. However, in both Dadri and Mandsaur, no law was violated. Yet, one man was killed and two women were assaulted. If the government cannot protect its citizens in a democracy who will? The concept of democracy has been reduced to a farce. The police, it seems, have no other law-and-order problems to deal with other than these ‘beef runners’. It is time voices of sanity emerged to stop this lunacy.