6.
Rail Minister Signs Order
To Resume Cow Carriage Trains
Cancelling an earlier order of the previous government, in September 2004, railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav permitted the transport of cattle on trains all over the country. The previous government had banned the transport of cattle in 2001.
Railway Ministry officials said the transport of cows, buffaloes and goats would be subject to strict rules like certificates from district authorities and local vets.
Attacking Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for lifting the ban on ferrying of cattle by trains, the BJP alleged he was behaving as a “trader of cows for slaughter” and asked Prime to intervene to stop it.
BJP Vice President and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters that the previous NDA government had put a ban on ferrying of cattle by train in 2002 considering that these are being transported to Bangladesh for slaughter.
“It is a matter of concern that Prasad is trying to give legal sanctity to trafficking of cows for slaughter,” he alleged, asserting that his party will oppose it.
Sources said after a series of representations from various bodies, including confidential reports from the RPF and an internal audit report, former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had imposed a virtual ban on movement of cows via trains. Provisions in the existing laws were made stringent so that it was practically impossible to ferry cows by trains.
Member of Parliament and former union minister, Ms Menaka Gandhi’s outburst was widely reported in the press. Following is a press report on the issue.
Railway Ministry officials said the transport of cows, buffaloes and goats would be subject to strict rules like certificates from district authorities and local vets.
Attacking Railway Minister Lalu Prasad for lifting the ban on ferrying of cattle by trains, the BJP alleged he was behaving as a “trader of cows for slaughter” and asked Prime to intervene to stop it.
BJP Vice President and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters that the previous NDA government had put a ban on ferrying of cattle by train in 2002 considering that these are being transported to Bangladesh for slaughter.
“It is a matter of concern that Prasad is trying to give legal sanctity to trafficking of cows for slaughter,” he alleged, asserting that his party will oppose it.
Sources said after a series of representations from various bodies, including confidential reports from the RPF and an internal audit report, former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had imposed a virtual ban on movement of cows via trains. Provisions in the existing laws were made stringent so that it was practically impossible to ferry cows by trains.
Member of Parliament and former union minister, Ms Menaka Gandhi’s outburst was widely reported in the press. Following is a press report on the issue.
An uncivilized man can do anything for the satisfaction of his senses. He can kill children, he can kill cows, he can kill old men; he has no mercy for anyone. According to the Vedic civilization, cows, women, children, old men and saintly persons should be excused if they are at fault. But asuras, uncivilized men, do not care about that. At the present moment, the killing of cows and the killing of children is going on unrestrictedly, and therefore this civilization is not at all human, and those who are conducting this condemned civilization are uncivilized demons.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.3.22)
Railway Minister Took ‘Bribe’ From Cattle Mafia, Says Maneka
Tribune News Service, New Delhi, September 17
Senior leader and former Central Minister Maneka Gandhi today accused Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav of taking ‘bribe’ for lifting the ban on transport of cattle in railway bogies. “One of the first order that Mr Yadav passed after assuming the charge of the Railway Minister was allowing the transport of cattle in railway bogies. It, in practical terms, means extending support to the cattle mafia that takes these animals to Bangladesh for slaughtering,” she said.
Unfortunately, our modern materialistic civilization is filled with so-called leaders who are devoid of spiritual knowledge and who refuse to take guidance from genuine spiritual authorities. Such leaders are blind in the truest sense, and therefore both they and their blind followers waste their time in a hopeless, meaningless struggle to be happy by gratifying the senses of the temporary material body. In defiance of God's laws for spiritual life in harmony with the laws of nature, such leaders encourage all sorts of sinful activities, such as gambling, intoxication, meat eating, and illicit sex. As a result they make civilization hellish, and in their next lives both they and their followers are thrown into hellish planets. Such leaders should certainly be known as demons.
~ Srila Prabhuapda (Back To Godhead, 12-07, 1977)
The illegal cattle trade is more lucrative and bigger than drug trade, she said.
Giving details of the illegal trade, she said, “The mafia has an organisation called Howrah Cattle Dealer Association in Howrah. It runs the illegal trade by bringing lakhs of cows, buffaloes, bullocks and bulls from northern states like Punjab, Haryana to West Bengal where these animals are slaughtered or smuggled to Bangladesh.”
“Bangladesh has thin cattle population of its own, but its exports of beef runs into lakhs of tonnes,” she asserted to buttress her claim of smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh.
Giving details of the illegal trade, she said, “The mafia has an organisation called Howrah Cattle Dealer Association in Howrah. It runs the illegal trade by bringing lakhs of cows, buffaloes, bullocks and bulls from northern states like Punjab, Haryana to West Bengal where these animals are slaughtered or smuggled to Bangladesh.”
“Bangladesh has thin cattle population of its own, but its exports of beef runs into lakhs of tonnes,” she asserted to buttress her claim of smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh.
Suta Gosvami said: After reaching that place, Maharaja Pariksit observed that a lower-caste sudra, dressed like a king, was beating a cow and a bull with a club, as if they had no owner.
The principal sign of the age of Kali is that lower-caste sudras, i.e., men without brahminical culture and spiritual initiation, will be dressed like administrators or kings, and the principal business of such non-ksatriya rulers will be to kill the innocent animals, especially the cows and the bulls, who shall be unprotected by their masters, the bona fide vaisyas, the mercantile community. In the Bhagavad-gita (18.44), it is said that the vaisyas are meant to deal in agriculture, cow protection and trade. In the age of Kali, the degraded vaisyas, the mercantile men, are engaged in supplying cows to slaughterhouses. The ksatriyas are meant to protect the citizens of the state, whereas the vaisyas are meant to protect the cows and bulls and utilize them to produce grains and milk. The cow is meant to deliver milk, and the bull is meant to produce grains. But in the age of Kali, the sudra class of men are in the posts of administrators, and the cows and bulls, or the mothers and the fathers, unprotected by the vaisyas, are subjected to the slaughterhouses organized by the sudra administrators.
~ Srila Prabhuapda (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.17.1)
Rubbishing the claim that the Railways would earn revenue through this, she said this was not correct as a boggy carried over 300 cattle illegally instead of 10 permitted by the law. It resulted in damage to these bogies. Repair of bogies leads to massive loss of revenue to the Railways, she asserted.
Showing a photograph of the cattle being carried in a railway boggy on September 7 at the Mubarakpur railway station in Patiala district, she said 70 per cent of cattle perished during transportation and then their skin and meat were sold.
Sher Khan, the trader who was carrying the cattle to the Howrah railway station, was absconding, she said. He was part of the bigger mafia, she added.
Because every third head of cattle in Bangladesh is smuggled in from India. Many come from as far away as Haryana and Punjab. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 animals enter Bangladesh almost everyday through West Bengal alone. While the trade is illegal on the Indian side, it becomes legal the moment the livestock enters Bangladesh.
Some estimates put the annual turnover from leather, meat and meat exports from smuggled Indian cattle in Bangladesh at over Rs 25 billion.
Showing a photograph of the cattle being carried in a railway boggy on September 7 at the Mubarakpur railway station in Patiala district, she said 70 per cent of cattle perished during transportation and then their skin and meat were sold.
Sher Khan, the trader who was carrying the cattle to the Howrah railway station, was absconding, she said. He was part of the bigger mafia, she added.
Because every third head of cattle in Bangladesh is smuggled in from India. Many come from as far away as Haryana and Punjab. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 animals enter Bangladesh almost everyday through West Bengal alone. While the trade is illegal on the Indian side, it becomes legal the moment the livestock enters Bangladesh.
Some estimates put the annual turnover from leather, meat and meat exports from smuggled Indian cattle in Bangladesh at over Rs 25 billion.
prsadhras tu manoh putro
go-palo guruna krtah
palayam asa ga yatto
ratryam virasana-vratah
Among these sons, Prsadhra, following the order of his spiritual master, was engaged as a protector of cows. He would stand all night with a sword to give the cows protection.
One who becomes virasana takes the vow to stand all night with a sword to give protection to the cows. Because Prsadhra was engaged in this way, it is to be understood that he had no dynasty. We can further understand from this vow accepted by Prsadhra how essential it is to protect the cows. Some son of a ksatriya would take this vow to protect the cows from ferocious animals, even at night. What then is to be said of sending cows to slaughterhouses? This is the most sinful activity in human society.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 9.2.4)
She said that as per the Cattle Prevention Act, it was illegal to transport cattle across State borders for purposes of slaughter and allowed only in case of draught and milch cattle.
The Indian Railways, she said, has been transporting cattle from North Indian States only in the direction of West Bengal proved that these were then taken to Bangladesh for slaughter. “The fact that they are going to Bangladesh is undisputed,’’ she said.
Since the Railway Ministry could not have done it on its own, so a clearance was taken from the Animal Welfare Board. The board, which is without a full-time chairman since June this year, issued a letter on July two saying the matter has been “reconsidered” and in view of “practical constrains”, the rule was being relaxed.
The Transport of Animal Rules says: “As far as possible, cattle may be moved during the nights only. They should be off-loaded during the day and be fed, given water and rested and if in milk, milking should be carried out.” Any violation was to be treated as criminal offence.
Only 12 cows were to be put in a bogey with prior permission of the Animal Welfare Board and a medical certificate from designated veterinary doctor was needed before that. The route plan was also to be submitted to the board. The Ministry of Home Affairs, in April, 2003, had directed the BSF (Border Security Force) to keep a vigil on smuggling of cows to Bangladesh.
That the order had been reversed was known on September 7 when activists of former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s People for Animals stopped a train at the Chagger Railway station near Dera Basi in Punjab and foundthat hundreds of cows were loaded in the train in the most pitiable conditions en route to eastern India (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040918/nation.htm#1)
In another interview about the whole episode, Ms Gandhi told The Pioneer: “This is a national shame. Actions of the the Congress-led UPA and the Prime Minister, who is responsible for policy making, have from the beginning been anti-national whether it is arresting the people for hoisting the national flag or reversing the laws in existence since 1978 to allow open smuggling of cows to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is eating and exporting beef from Indian cows.
“In 2001, the Railways, after a careful study, came to a conclusion that they had somehow been abetting the crime of sending the cows to West Bengal on false certifications. It thus imposed a ban.
“The new order of the UPA Government effectively means that it was reopening the smuggling route of sending the cows to Bangladesh for slaughter.”
Toppling the Congress Party coalition that had ruled India for 48 of the 49 preceding years in 1998, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Dal coalition beefed up the Cattle Transport Act by banning cattle transport by train in March 2001, under the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The action had long been urged by then-animal welfare minister Maneka Gandhi and then-Animal Welfare Board of India chair Guman Mal Lodha as an essential step toward ending cattle slaughter, which increased 20-fold between 1977 and 1997.
The Indian Railways, she said, has been transporting cattle from North Indian States only in the direction of West Bengal proved that these were then taken to Bangladesh for slaughter. “The fact that they are going to Bangladesh is undisputed,’’ she said.
Since the Railway Ministry could not have done it on its own, so a clearance was taken from the Animal Welfare Board. The board, which is without a full-time chairman since June this year, issued a letter on July two saying the matter has been “reconsidered” and in view of “practical constrains”, the rule was being relaxed.
The Transport of Animal Rules says: “As far as possible, cattle may be moved during the nights only. They should be off-loaded during the day and be fed, given water and rested and if in milk, milking should be carried out.” Any violation was to be treated as criminal offence.
Only 12 cows were to be put in a bogey with prior permission of the Animal Welfare Board and a medical certificate from designated veterinary doctor was needed before that. The route plan was also to be submitted to the board. The Ministry of Home Affairs, in April, 2003, had directed the BSF (Border Security Force) to keep a vigil on smuggling of cows to Bangladesh.
That the order had been reversed was known on September 7 when activists of former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s People for Animals stopped a train at the Chagger Railway station near Dera Basi in Punjab and foundthat hundreds of cows were loaded in the train in the most pitiable conditions en route to eastern India (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040918/nation.htm#1)
In another interview about the whole episode, Ms Gandhi told The Pioneer: “This is a national shame. Actions of the the Congress-led UPA and the Prime Minister, who is responsible for policy making, have from the beginning been anti-national whether it is arresting the people for hoisting the national flag or reversing the laws in existence since 1978 to allow open smuggling of cows to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is eating and exporting beef from Indian cows.
“In 2001, the Railways, after a careful study, came to a conclusion that they had somehow been abetting the crime of sending the cows to West Bengal on false certifications. It thus imposed a ban.
“The new order of the UPA Government effectively means that it was reopening the smuggling route of sending the cows to Bangladesh for slaughter.”
Toppling the Congress Party coalition that had ruled India for 48 of the 49 preceding years in 1998, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Dal coalition beefed up the Cattle Transport Act by banning cattle transport by train in March 2001, under the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The action had long been urged by then-animal welfare minister Maneka Gandhi and then-Animal Welfare Board of India chair Guman Mal Lodha as an essential step toward ending cattle slaughter, which increased 20-fold between 1977 and 1997.
And cruelty to animals means not to be cruel to the cats and dogs. And for the cows, “Oh, there is no question of cruelty. It has no soul. Kill him.” This is your civilization, Dog civilization.
One side they’re advertising “Stop cruelty to animals,” another side they’re opening unrestricted slaughterhouse. Just see. Just like a gang of thieves gives a signboard, “Goodman and Company.” So there are so many members of the society against cruelty to animals. But they are all meat-eaters.
-Srila Prabhupada (Talk with Bob Cohen - February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura)
