DIMAPUR, NOV 8: The Rising People’s Party (RPP), a political
party based in Nagaland, was irked by certain campaigns
against dog meat eating by an organisation.
“To eat or not to eat dog meat is a personal choice,” the RPP
said in a statement recently.
The RPP then said, “When the Home Minister Amit Shah
proposed to impose his ideology of beef ban in India, many
communities stridently opposed the move, and it was
shelved”.
Nagas eating dog meat is part of our cultural heritage, and it
is nothing to be ashamed of, the Nagaland based party also
said.
J.H. Hutton, the anthropologist and British Raj Administrator
in the then Naga Hills of Assam in his seminal books
extensively documented dog eating habits among the Nagas,
it pointed out. “The fact of the matter is most Nagas eat dog
meat and so if our state has earned the sobriquet, ‘The land
of dog meat eaters’, so be it,” the RPP also stated.
The statement of the RPP then said, “Today, many self-styled
organisations particularly the Maneka Gandhi-led People for
Animals want to stamp their ideology upon the Naga people.
The People for Animals, Nagaland Chapter, should realize
that whether its beef or dog ban, such agenda are part of the
greater ideological battle in India’s political and cultural
landscape, and they should stop being pawns and puppets,
the RPP further said.
“Today, gullible Nagas leading People for Animals, Nagaland
Chapter, desperately want to ban dog meat in the state not
realizing the insidious agenda of their masters in Delhi –
people who profess to be ‘clean/unpolluted’ and ‘veg’ with
their stated goal of ‘purifying’ or ‘cleansing’ Naga tribalsand
other minorities of their ‘impurity’”, the RPP further added.
The RPP then reminded the Naga people that this issue is not
a small matter. “It is part of the larger ‘One nation, One
Culture’ agenda to ‘Sanskritize’ all the minority peoples and
cultures within Bharat,” the RPP also said.
“Instead of approaching the courts, the Rising People’s Party
dares the People for Animals, Nagaland Chapter, to lobby
Maneka Gandhi in passing a legislation in the Indian
Parliament”, it further said, while adding, “While the RPP is
focused on good governance, the bigger picture of ‘identity
politics’ is too dangerous to be ignored”. (NNN)
