Beef dishes have started to disappear from the menus of popular restaurants in West Bengal, days after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the crucial state election.
Beef steaks, chops, and beef biriyanis have been permanently taken off of the menu at iconic restaurants in West Bengal’s capital city of Kolkata following a supply crisis and fear of assault over consumption of bovine meat.
The BJP has been quick to roll out multiple directives since securing victory in the state bordering Bangladesh by dethroning Mr Modi’s fiercest critic and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee earlier this month.
The state government has enforced a decades-old law prohibiting the public slaughter of cows, bulls and buffaloes ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, while also mandating official certification confirming that any animal slaughtered is either above 14 years of age or permanently unfit for labour.
West Bengal was one of the only non-BJP governed states in India which allowed slaughtering of cows for consumption.
Shaikh’s, one of most renowned restaurants for beef steaks in Kolkata, told The Independent that they have taken beef off the menu. “There is no supply and there won’t be any for the next six-seven months so we have permanently stopped serving beef dishes”.
Nitin Kothari of Mocambo restaurant said the dishes were still on the menu but were not being served due to a supply crunch. “We are waiting for supply to resume. But if it does not, we will have to remove it from menu,” he told the Times of India.
The Burger Shop on Instagram announced “with a heavy heart” that “after five years of serving burgers exactly the way we wanted, and you loved, we are making a change in menu”.
“Beef is no longer available at The Burger Shop,” it said. The eatery added: “Our burgers have no religion. But politics sure does.”
Staff at the decades-old Oly Pub said the beef stakes would be taken off the menu once the supply completely dries up.
The cattle slaughter ban has sent ripples through the state’s livestock market and driven up anxiety among Hindu traders as several markets, where cattle are brought in for sale ahead of the festival, witnessed a sharp decline in business.
“The new government has made it impossible to be a livestock farmer in the state. We have been raising these cows to be sold off before Eid. That’s how we earn our livelihood, how will we survive,” asked Gopal Das who runs a cattle farm in the South 24 Paraganas district.
Mr Das has about 14 cows, most of them non-milching, under the age of seven. “Each cow costs us up to Rs250 (£1.90) per day. We will have to release the cattle on the streets and suffer losses if we are forced to raise them till the age of 14,” he told The Independent.
The state government has been facing widespread backlash over the move, with farmers taking to the streets to protest the law and condemn its implementation.
Cows are considered sacred and worshiped by many Hindus, the religion that makes up a large majority of India’s population. Scores of cow protectors since Mr Modi’s rise to power in 2014 have been accused of carrying out extra-judicial activities. They have often found themselves at odds with law enforcement, even though many have won support among Hindus for defending the faith.
Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death in Uttar Pradesh state in 2015 after rumours spread that he had allegedly stored and consumed beef. Similar deaths have since been reported from parts of northern India.
However, India’s minority Muslims and Christians, as well as some Hindus, consume beef, considered to be a low cost protein option, as part of their diet.
The slaughter ban has prompted Muslim clerics to urge people to refrain from sacrificing animals during Eid-al Adha amid fears of legal action and communal tensions. During the festival, Muslims slaughter sheep or cattle and distribute some meat to poor people to honour prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith and his willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to god.
The newly-elected state government has been criticised for intensifying bulldozing alleged illegal houses and establishments in the state.
The BJP’s overhaul appeared to have begun with the aesthetics of the state. In Kolkata, painters replaced Ms Banerjee’s trademark blue and white with yellow and white.
The government has also decided to shift its functioning back to Writers’ Buildings, nearly 13 years after the state secretariat had moved to ‘Nabanna’ in neighbouring Howrah.
The BJP said it would remove a controversial football-themed statue outside the city stadium designed by Ms Banerjee. “Such an ugly-looking statue, two legs cut at torso and football above it does not make sense,” sports minister Nisith Pramanik told reporters.
“It does not look aesthetically pleasing either, so we will not keep such a grotesque structure that has no meaning, and it will be taken down,” he added.
