‘No beef at restaurants or community festivals’: Announcing ban across Assam, CM Himanta says idea came from Congress

According to the latest decision, beef cannot beryllium served successful immoderate hotels, edifice oregon assemblage functions — whether spiritual oregon otherwise. According to the CM, provisions to this effect volition beryllium added to the existing Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021.

The instrumentality successful Assam presently bars the merchantability and acquisition of beef and beef products successful areas “predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and different non-beef eating communities”, oregon “within a radius of 5 km” of immoderate temple oregon sattra (Vaishnavite monasteries).

“In the past fewer days, the Congress president Bhupen Borah and enactment person Rakibul Hussain person been expressing unhappiness astir beef successful antithetic places and person been giving the nationalist the thought that they besides bash not privation beef. We discussed their statements point-by-point successful today’s Cabinet gathering and we saw that our existing instrumentality connected beef is rather beardown but it lacks a proviso connected whether oregon not beef tin beryllium consumed successful assemblage festivals oregon hotels oregon restaurants,” Sarma told the media Wednesday.

“We volition enactment caller provisions connected these lines successful our enactment and I deliberation that these provisions volition fortify our Act and instrumentality guardant what Rakibul Hussain and Bhupen Borah were asking for. So, we expect that the Congress volition enactment us,” helium said.

The Assam Cattle Preservation Act authorities was initially meant to beryllium applicable to each cattle (cows, bulls, bullocks, buffaloes). Before it became a law, buffaloes were removed from the definition. While it prohibits slaughter of a cattle nether immoderate circumstances, different cattle tin beryllium slaughtered taxable to a “fit for slaughter” certificate.

Last month, BJP’s Diplu Ranjan Sarmah bushed Congress’s Tanzil Hussain successful Samaguri by 24,501 votes. For Congress, the decision came arsenic a large daze – Tanzil’s begetter and enactment heavyweight Rakibul Hussain had held the spot for 5 consecutive presumption earlier being elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

After this loss, Rakibul had visited antithetic parts of northbound and precocious Assam and alleged that Sarma and the BJP had “betrayed” the Hindutva they assertion to espouse by “offering beef” and “pursuing Bengali Muslim voters”. Speaking successful the beingness of Assam Congress main Bhupen Borah successful Lakhimpur’s Ranganadi, helium said this was besides a betrayal of the “ethnic Assamese communities” which populate northbound and precocious Assam, and called Sarma “two-faced”.

These allegations were not countered by Sarma, but alternatively the CM turned Hussain’s comments connected their caput connected Sunday, saying that his authorities was consenting to present a beef prohibition successful the authorities if the Congress “asks for it”.

The Indian Express had reported that a conception of the Assam Congress enactment was uncomfortable with this enactment and had anticipated that it could beryllium utilized against them by the BJP. After Sarma’s announcement, a elder Congress person said that the enactment was successful a hard position.

“This is what we got into by uttering these things. There was nary request for the enactment president to endorse the MP [Dhubri MP Rakibul] making these statements. We should steer wide of communal waters. Now a conception of Hindu voters volition beryllium happy, portion Muslims volition beryllium unhappy with both. This is conscionable a governmental connection by Sarma,” said the leader.

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) General Secretary Aminul Islam besides called it a “political gimmick”.

“We condemn this determination by the Cabinet, this is simply a wholly idiosyncratic substance affecting astir 40 percent of the state’s population… The CM recovered a constituent from which to make a setback for the Congress and jumped connected it and is trying to play a governmental crippled earlier panchayat polls and the 2026 assembly polls. The cattle is the BJP’s field, wherefore did they rise this and effort to snatch this contented from the BJP,” helium said.

According to the 2011 Census, 34.22 percent of Assam’s colonisation are Muslim portion 3.74 percent are Christian.