Sirajuddin Qureshi heads the Jamaiul Quresh, the apex body of India’s Quraish Muslims, a 4 crore-strong community that owes its upper and middle income status to the meat and leather industry. As India restricts the buffalo trade, Qureshi, who owns Hind Group, a meat export unit, talks to Pragya Singh about its effects on the community, the trade and others, such as farmers.
The centre has tightened rules for animal slaughter. What does this mean for the meat retail and export industry?
The new central rules are not a good thing to happen. I don’t think they are in sync with the Prime Minister’s vision. Whoever framed the rules doesn’t understand their impact. The entire meat industry and value chain will come to a standstill. Farmers, transporters, the leather industry, all will be put out of work. The Rs 2.7 lakh crore sector will grind to a halt. The meat business employs 5 crore people. They will all become jobless. Small traders will be destroyed. When we cannot provide food to all or alternative employment, we have no right to take away people’s livelihood.
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What aspects of the new rules do you oppose?
On cattle (cow) slaughter we have always supported the government. We have strict regulations to disallow it and stopped it. We exporters have started shelters for cows, where they are cared for, we are doing gau raksha (cow protection). But when it comes to the buffalo, what will India do with the 110 million buffalo that farmers have reared? The new rules will create tremendous problems.
But the government rules speak of stopping cruelty.
Exporters have to follow international specifications and norms in which the question of cruelty does not arise. Look, in buses, trains or auto-rickshaws human beings are filled to over-flowing. Tempos literally drag passengers in order to generate maximum profits for tempo owners. Is all this not cruelty? But nobody seems to pay any attention to any of that.
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So to equate animal slaughter with cruelty is what you oppose?
All we say is, if slaughter is cruel and has to be banned then the ban would not just be in India but the entire world. Maybe the government took this decision because some people congratulate it for such steps. But this will crush employment. It is already happening—jobs are being snatched under so-called cruelty laws. As far as animal sacrifice is concerned, non-Muslims also engage in the practice, say, in West Bengal and Assam.
Bakr Id is around the corner. What impact will the new rules have on Muslims?
We have been given a religious right as per the halal system. That means, it is mentioned in our holy book that if any animal is sacrificed as per the halal system that is a sacrifice to Allah. So when you sacrifice in the name of Allah, it becomes a matter between Allah and the animal. Why else did Allah make the animal? That is why we find the new rules difficult to comprehend.
Are supplies of buffalo from farmers continuing?
Whether informal or formal, no transportation of buffalo supplies is possible right now. In UP, the problem is worse because the government says it will take three months to resolve the slaughterhouse ban. I think it will take them much longer to create mandis (markets) specifically for slaughter-animals, to modernise slaughterhouses etc.
How have exporters been affected so far?
They are in panic. We don’t know why the government has taken such a decision. They should have considered the impact on the economy. The PM always says sabka saath sabka vikas—is this how vikas will be done? To protect the daily bread of ordinary people is also the government’s job. Is this how all will progress? Neither farmers nor transporters nor industry were taken into confidence; suddenly they passed a law. Things were never done this way. The government is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people.
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You were planning a nationwide stir on this issue when Uttar Pradesh banned ‘illegal’ slaughterhouses. What happened to those plans?
We have been getting assurances from the state government so we have not protested beyond a point... Now we have requested to meet the PM on the central rules as well.
What are the current conditions in the animal mandis?
The Mandis are not functioning. People are not transporting animals because officials (bureaucrats and police) are interpreting the new rules as they please. Everybody is worried. Nobody knows what to do. The government says that animals can be bought directly from farmers for slaughter. But, for farmers with four, five or six heads of buffalo it is not practical to come to the mandi to sell. Nor is it possible for us (exporters) to go to every farmer’s house to buy buffalo. The government should have seen the supply chain carefully before making this decision. The biggest losers of this decision will be the farmers who rear buffalo.
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Then why aren’t farmers up in arms over the new rules?
They are worried but don’t speak up because they are simple and innocent. They dare not. If someone threatens to beat them they just say, ‘OK we have shut our eyes, do as you please’. It is the meat importers who are calling to ask what exactly is going on in India. They say the buffalo is not attached to religious sentiment, so why are these things happening. Still, I am hopeful. It is natural law for the lion to eat the sheep—ultimately we cannot twist nature according to our will.
