Why ban cattle slaughter?

We saw a news item that cabinet has given the nod for the stoppage of cattle slaughter. Bulls, cows and buffalows come under the category of cattle and not chicken or fish. These friendly animals called cows are bred by farmers to obtain milk and they end up in freezers as beef when they are too old to work. Bùlls (males) are bred for laborious farming and they also end up being slaughtered for their beef.

If beef is not readily available in markets it will lead to unlawful cattle slaughter carried out by village cattle thieves as there will be a ready market for beef lovers. Beef is a very nutritional food according to doctors in 1940 era, hence in the south the main foods for a good meal were Balaya (TUNA) fish or beef.

This ban will not affect me personally as I don’t consume beef now.

If the thinking is that by killing a big cow or bull there is more sin than killing a tiny fish like a sprat I feel it is bunkum. Killing is taking the life away from a person or an animal. This issue is like walking on a tight rope as we are a multireligious country where we live in harmony. There are enough issues already where people are agitating against. Is this a ruse to turn people away from “parakrama samudra bund excavation”?