The beef battle has taken a baffling new turn in Haryana’s Muslim-dominated Mewat district
The beef battle has taken a baffling new turn in Haryana’s Muslim-dominated Mewat district. Reports suggest that police officials there have been asked to put aside more pressing matters such as crime control and law enforcement and, instead, collect biryani samples.
That’s right. Police officials in that district have been asked to collect biryani samples from street-side vendors to check if beef is being used in them. The move comes a few days before Bakri Eid, which will be celebrated on September 11.
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Reports suggest the Gau Sewa Ayog issued the diktat and numerous justifications have been offered as to why only biryani is being targeted. Apparently, officials claim beef is easily camouflaged in biryani as the rice covers it up — unlike kebabs or other side dishes. For those who thought a cop’s job was to sniff for clues and solve crimes, this beef hunting mission wherein an officer has to catch ‘hidden’ beef pieces under a bed of rice comes as a bizarre twist to conventional policing.
This order comes even as the National Crime Record Bureau reports reveal that Haryana registers the second number of complaints lodged at a police station in India, after UP. This little nugget of data reveals how short staffed the police force is in that state, and hence the need for them to focus on more urgent matters than embark on a beef-in-biryani hunt.
The issue, however, gets a communal colour as it comes right before Eid and there is little doubt that politicians will jump at the chance to stir the communal pot. While some might brush it off as a trifling, laughable matter, this could be just the weapon politicians require to stoke divisive sentiments. Biryani politics is simply unpalatable.
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