New Delhi: Assam’s cabinet decided to ban the consumption of beef in hotels, restaurants and public places as well as at public functions, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Wednesday (December 4).
As it stands now, the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021 prohibits slaughtering cows, restricts the slaughter of certain other cattle and prohibits the sale of beef – the flesh of cattle whose slaughter is prohibited – and beef products in areas “predominantly inhabited” by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs or “other non-beef-eating communities” as well as within a five-kilometre radius of temples and satras, which are Vaishnavite monasteries.
Sarma, who was in New Delhi on Wednesday, described the 2021 Act as successful and that the state cabinet had decided that “henceforth, beef will not be served in any restaurant or hotel, as well as at a public function or in a public place”.
He also said the “consumption” of beef in the aforementioned places would be prohibited.
“Today we took one step forward what we started three years ago,” Sarma said at a press conference following the cabinet meeting.
आज असम मंत्रिमंडल ने राज्य के होटलों, रेस्टोरेंट्स और सार्वजनिक स्थानों पर गोमांस पर प्रतिबंध लगाने का निर्णय लिया है।#AssamBeefBan pic.twitter.com/Nhda2uQ3Gt
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) December 4, 2024
Over the weekend, Sarma responded to allegations that the BJP distributed beef for electoral gains in the state’s Muslim-majority Samaguri assembly seat by saying he would consider banning beef in the state if Congress MP Rakibul Hussain and Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah agreed to it, The Hindu reported.
According to the Indian Express, Hussain alleged that the BJP won Samaguri by attracting voters “with beef”.
“But amidst sadness, Rakibul Hussain said one good thing that eating beef is wrong, isn’t it? He said that it was wrong for Congress-BJP to win elections by offering beef to voters,” PTI quoted Sarma as saying on Saturday.
“So, I will write to Bhupen Borah and ask him if he also advocates banning beef in line with Rakibul Hussain, and just inform me. I will ban beef completely in the next assembly [accordingly].
“Then BJP, AGP [Asom Gana Parishad], CPM [Communist Party of India (Marxist)], nobody will be able to offer, and Hindus, Muslims and Christians all should stop eating beef, and all problems will be solved,” Sarma was also quoted as saying.
While the 2021 Cattle Preservation Act prohibits slaughtering cows, it places restrictions on the slaughter of bulls and bullocks.
Scroll noted that the five-kilometre-radius restriction on the sale and purchase of beef and beef products “has been read as a ban on the sale and consumption of beef as there are hardly any areas that are not within five kilometres of a temple or a satra”.
