Kanpur Muslims wary of BJP's promise to shut abattoirs

Amit Shah's sustained campaign against slaughterhouses has unnerved UP's leather and meat export industry.
Archis Mohan reports from Kanpur.

Bharatiya Janata Party hoardings that dot the landscape of Kanpur, this industrial town of central Uttar Pradesh, do not so much showcase vikas, or development initiatives, of the 33-month-old Narendra Modi government.

Here, it is common to find a BJP billboard that proclaims any of the party's three key promises if it were to form the government in Lucknow after March 11 -- a BJP government will set up 'anti-Romeo squads' to check harassment of women; constitute a special cell to check the purported exodus of Hindus from 'Muslim-dominated areas' and ban illegal as well as mechanised slaughterhouses.

Kanpur and its adjoining areas of central UP will vote in the third phase of UP elections on Sunday, February 18.

Several of the 69 seats, particularly in the urban areas, have a Muslim population of 20 to 25 per cent.

The Muslims of Kanpur and its neighbouring areas like Unnao -- home to northern India's meat and leather export trade that is largely owned by the community -- say they are acutely aware that a BJP government in Lucknow will use the state apparatus to target them, and not just socially.

"The talk of banning slaughterhouses is to hit at the community's economic interests. Why are the slaughterhouses in Kanpur being targeted? What about the mechanised ones in Gujarat, which are owned by Hindus?" asks Mohammed Karim Khan, a 26 year old who runs his family business of leather exports.

The BJP's promises on constituting a special cell to stop alleged migration and an 'anti-Romeo squad' are also being interpreted as attempts to browbeat the community and polarise voter sentiment.

It is common for Muslim candidates from the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress to point out in their street corner meetings how the BJP couldn't find a single Muslim to field in the 403 seat Uttar Pradesh assembly, and is using such ploys to distract from its failed note ban move and its failure to deliver upon its promises of development and jobs.

But it is BJP chief Amit Shah's sustained campaigning on slaughterhouses that has unnerved UP's leather and meat export industry.

'In all of UP you will see that due to slaughterhouses, cows that give milk are finished. In UP, we want to prevent cattle smuggling and slaughter,' Shah told a television channel earlier this month.

But Shah has moved the goalpost since.

In Unnao, home to half dozen government-approved abattoirs, Shah told a public rally that all slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh will be shut on March 12, the day after the counting of votes.

Meat and leather industry is a significant job provider and a source of livelihood for at least 500,000 across Uttar Pradesh.

Kanpur, Unnao, Agra and Noida are the main centres. Its annual turnover is estimated at Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 million).

The industry is largely owned by Muslims, and it employs Muslims and Dalits.

There are approximately 402 tanneries in Kanpur's suburb of Jajmau. Of these, around 250 are operational, which include 50 big tanneries with annual turnover of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) a year.

The bigger ones employ 500 to 700 workers. All tanneries have struggled to survive in the last few years because of stricter environmental protection laws, activism of cow protection gangs and since the November 8 note ban decision.

Those associated with the leather and meat industry in Kanpur say the BJP is being economical with the truth about cows being killed.

"We have invited those associated with cow protection to check if any cows are being slaughtered in the abattoirs. There is a generational shift in the business. We, the younger educated lot, know that we cannot afford to give a single opportunity to the right wing elements to defame the business," Mohammed Inayat, a tannery owner, says.

The tanneries largely deal in cash to be paid to farmers, or middlemen, who sell buffaloes to slaughterhouses.

Tannery owners say they didn't have cash to pay farmers during the note ban period, which led to non-availability of raw hides, and work came to a standstill.

This forced tannery owners to ask at least half their workers to return home.

"Fortunately, trade has picked up now, normalcy is returning and labourers have come back. But what of the loss we suffered for three months? The reason for demonetisation still remains unexplained," Mohammed Arshad, another tannery owner, says.

The tannery owners believe that with his clean image and development work in the last few years, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has caught the imagination of Muslim youth in the region.

With a bias in favour of Yadav apparent among the youth in the region, BSP chief Mayawati told a public rally in Kanpur that there was no way that she would ever again form a government with the BJP.

IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on the campaign trail. Photograph: PTI Photo