West Bengal: Meat trader Mushtaq has not earned a single penny in over three months since the Suvendu Adhikari-led West Bengal government issued a notice on cattle slaughter.
“It was halted because of the elections, but there is no news about when it would be renewed,” he told Al Jazeera, looking back when times were easier.
Mushtaq’s family has been in the meat trading business for years. “All six generations before me supplied beef, and all past governments had no problem,” he said.
He sits in front of a slaughterhouse in Tangra, recently closed down following government orders. It was Bengal’s last slaughter facility.
His friend, Mehmood Alam, owns a roadside eatery opposite the facility. “I don’t think this government will let this reopen any time soon,” he says, his tone melancholic.
Four days after coming to power for the first time in West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a notice on bovine slaughter, stating cows, bulls, bullocks, calves and specified buffaloes cannot be slaughtered without a certificate declaring the animal fit for slaughter.
Strict compliance with the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, reads the document.
According to the government notice, a certificate for slaughter can be issued if the animal is more than 14 years old, deemed unfit for work and breeding, or has an injury, deformity, or an incurable disease.
“Certified animals may be slaughtered only in a municipal or locally designated slaughterhouse. It prohibits slaughter in open public places.”
The notification was issued on May 13, the same month when Muslims celebrated Bakrid or Eid-ul-Adha. The impact was severe.
But a certificate is not enough. According to this report, a licence to practise the trade is compulsory. However, the renewal of these licences has been stalled since Kolkata’s Municipal Corporation was dissolved in June, following Firhad Hakim’s resignation as Mayor. Kolkata is set to hold its next civic elections in December.
Meat consumption is deeply woven into the Bengali culture and culinary identity. According to government data, 10.4 per cent of rural households and 7.9 per cent of urban homes consume beef or buffalo meat.
The data mentions that two-thirds of the Bengali Muslims population consume beef, while Christians, sections of Dalit communities, and some Indigenous communities also eat beef as part of their regular diets.
West Bengal has the highest beef consumption, alongside Keralam and Assam.
This year, the BJP toppled Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule. Many meat traders saw the ban coming.
Alfaz Laiq is a Kolkata-based businessman. A person who consumed beef for breakfast has now stopped bringing. “Carrying beef has become more dangerous than carrying drugs in Bengal now,” he says.
Laiq shut down his dairy business in Burdwan and sold his livestock at discounted rates. “It is better than dealing with the headache,” he says, pointing at the harassment by BJP and Hindutva supporters.
Cow vigilantism has spiked ever since Narendra Modi took over as India’s Prime Minister, with at least two cases of cow vigilante violence against Muslims and Dalits registered or reported every week across India. In most cases, police have prosecuted survivors of attacks or families of lynching victims, rather than the attackers who carried out the murders.
Most restaurant owners and managers have suffered immense losses since the notice was out. “Most shops remained closed for the first two months. Sales have fallen, and the quality of the meat has also changed. It is not a good time for the business,” said a shop manager.
Shadman Faize, who owns Kolkata-based Zam Zam restaurant, said they have removed beef dishes from the menus of all three branches because quality could not be compromised. “Yes, we have lost customers and are continuing to incur about 40 per cent losses. We have even had to lay off staff, but it is what it is,” he says.
The shortage is also being felt outside Kolkata.
In Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, residents say beef often runs out by 11 am. On some days, there is no beef available at all. “Beef used to be the most affordable meat. Now it has been reduced to once or twice a week as prices have increased,” said Sayed Saifulla, a local.
He said his family’s weekly food expenses have risen from Rs 5,000 before May to Rs 7,000, while their income has remained the same.
In Malda, where more than half the population is Muslim, some residents claim beef is now being obtained through informal and secret networks.
One resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said people sometimes arrange beef privately through known contacts, with some allegedly slaughtering cattle at night and delivering the meat to customers. He said fear of being caught has increased. “It is not easy for the poor Muslim to give up on this meat. So now, they’re risking their safety and their lives to keep eating it,” he said.
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