For over a year now the lynching of people alleged to have killed cows for consuming beef has been sanctified by the ruling party ~ leaders have gone to unimaginable lengths condemning those who have slaughtered the sacred animal. Even contended that a human life was of less-value than gau mata’s, despite hungry abandoned cattle (cows included) foraging for food at urban garbage dumps having become part of the “livestock scene”.

But are those men terrorising minority communities really protecting cows from slaughter, or mere communal goons running amuck under a political umbrella? That query acquires significance in the light of scientific analyses proving that in 93 per cent of cases when samples of illegally slaughtered “beef” were submitted as evidence, the flesh was not that of a cow. In “normal course” that scientific finding might have prompted a remedial re-look at events but things are not even close to normal when a firebrand of a show-boy chief minister, a singular selection of the ruling power structure, is the prime mover in a polarising communal agenda that will surely intensify in coming months.

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It would be a “shocker” if Yogi Adityanath and his vocal squad of cheerleaders were to give any credence to a study by the Hyderabad-based National Research Centre on Meat on 112 samples submitted from across the country. The DNA analyses by the NRCM (which operates under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research) examined samples tendered by the police and animal husbandry departments of the governments of UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Telangana and Andhra. Significantly none were sent from Haryana and Rajasthan where the “vigilantes” flourished under high political favour. No less significant is that none of the three scientists ~ Dr S Vaithyanahan, Dr MR Vishnuraj, and Dr G Narendra Reddy ~ had Muslim-sounding names, so no bias could be alleged. Apart from the seven per cent “positive” cow samples the others were of buffalo, bull (they are legally slaughtered in some states), camel, dog etc. The findings (in the 2014-17 period) were recently published in the professional journal Biocatalyst and Agricultural Biotechnology under the caption “Application of DNA technology to check misrepresentation of animal species in illegally sold meat.”

Another 80 samples taken in 2018 are under analyses. The scientists note that a uniform regime did not apply across the county: While slaughter of cows was generally taboo, some states allowed the killing of male animals. And buffalo meat is even more widely permitted. Clarity on the legality of the sale of specific versions of bovine flesh would be most desirable. It would disabuse minority communities of fears that their personal freedoms were being encroached upon, and help reduce the engineered confusion in which mass hysteria is whipped up often with lethal backlash. But such clarity would deprive the politicians of opportunity to exploit differences between beef and “buff” to buffet the minorities into subjugation.