Insidious Ways Of Duplicitous Governance !
BY
R.K.MISRA
Insidious
are the ways authorities function, preaching
one thing, practicing quite another .
Administrative muscle- flexing to suit political goals was on display when
the BJP led Vijay Rupani government in
Gujarat banned the export of livestock days ahead of Eid. Even the Narendra
Modi- led government expressed its
intent to confirm it countrywide but
stopped short of doing so. Here is a classic case of how governments function
in India, looking London and talking
Tokyo.
In
April, the Gujarat High Court quashed three notifications of the state
government aimed at stopping export of livestock from Tuna port in Kutch,
terming it a ‘colourable exercise of powers”, to do something which cannot be
done directly.
A
division bench of justices Harsha Devani and Bhargav Karia termed the decision
as ‘grossly illegal, unconstitutional and violative of the fundamental rights
of the petitioners”.
Several
livestock exporters had sought judicial redressal after the state government
issued orders up to December 2018 which banned the export of livestock, principally
sheep and goat, from Tuna . The judges said in their verdict that ” with a view
to appease a section of society which is
averse to export of livestock from Tuna port, the government has from time to
time taken all steps to ensure that the petitioners and similarly situated persons are
not able to carry out this export from here”.
The
sequence of events makes for interesting reading. On December 14 Chief Minister
Vijay Rupani announced that the government will not allow livestock exports from
the port. On the same day, the agriculture department issues a notification
under the Gujarat Essential Commodities and Cattle(Control) Act, prohibiting
movement of cattle from outside into any drought-affected area. Kutch had
already been declared drought affected . Soon after, the director of animal
husbandry informed the collector of customs that the state government has
decided to withdraw the services provided for health check-ups of animals to be
exported and would not allow export of
live animals until the specified(check-up) facility was established. On the
same day, the home department directed
the Kutch police to set up check-posts to keep a watch on transportation of
animals, the High Court noted.
“What
cannot be done directly by the state government is sought to be done indirectly
under the guise of exercise of powers under section 4(1)(b) of the (Cattle
Protection)Act…notification therefore ,clearly has been issued in colourable
exercise of powers and deserves to be struck down”, the court ruled. It added
that ” the intention was to prohibit export which is otherwise not a state
subject”. The state government requested a stay of the order so that it could
move the Supreme Court but no stay was granted.
MTM Hakim,
advocate who represented some of the petitioners said that this was not
the first time that the state government had attempted to stop these exports
from Tuna port. Two previous attempts had been too.
On August 3, 2018,The director general of
shipping in consultation with the mercantile
marine department allowed mechanized shipping vessels to operate from Tuna
port in August. The consignment was to
leave by August 6. But the same day, the district Magistrate of Kutch, Ramya
Mohan stopped the consignment of about
8,000 sheep and goat which was to be exported to UAE. She cited violation of Prevention
of the Cruelty to Animals Act,1960 and immediately appointed a three- member committee
to probe this.
The panel comprised of the sub-divisional magistrate, Anjar; deputy
police chief and deputy director, animal husbandry.They were asked to submit their
report within a day. However, before that
could be done , the D-G, shipping stopped the vessel on August 8 without
assigning any reason. The mercantile marine department which had cleared the
export then backtracked saying that according to the Indian Merchant Shipping
Act ,1958 and Sailing Vessel Rules ,1997, vessels must not sail in the foul
season of June 1-August 31 and cancelled
the port clearance through a letter dated august 7.
Aggrieved
exporters sought the intervention of the High Court and a single judge bench of
Justice Bela Trivedi stayed the August 6 order of the district magistrate till
the pendency of the petition filed by the Livestock Exporters Association(LEA).
The Court also observed that the panel formed by the district magistrate lacked
the authority of law.
Besides
the apparently communal nature of events, things fell in place once realization
dawned that Bakri-Eid in 2018 fell on August 22 when demand for such livestock
in gulf countries peaked and any
obstruction in exports then is likely to result in huge economic losses with
penalties and potential blacklisting. There was also realisation that livestock
exports from Tuna in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 had crossed seven lakh heads.
According to reports, a Dubai based company which had invested heavily in these
exports wrote to the external affairs
ministry to resolve the matter as such undue interruption in export sullied the
name of indian exporters. Adil Noor, secretary of the Livestock Export
Association ,Gujarat, also drew attention of the authorities to this fact .
According
to data from the commerce ministry, the
export value of sheep and goat meat from India has increased from US $ 128.38
million in 2015-16 to US $ 129.69 million in 2016-17. Some 60 countries import
this meat from India and almost 80 per cent of the total meat exports go
to West Asia. UAE followed by Nepal are the two main countries which import
live sheep and goats from India.
It
was only after these efforts came to nought, that the Rupani government pulled out all stops to block the livestock
export with a series of measures including the December notification.
The
fact that there is more than meets the eye became clear when the Rajkot Chamber
of Commerce and Industry pressed for a ban in livestock export. In a
representation in March to commerce and
industry minister Suresh Prabhu, it stated
that ”now it seems that our livestock exporters are beyond the law of
the land. It is high time you need to take serious note that such unruly export
is threat against national security and it is also conniving hawala and money
laundering”. This shocking representation from a trade body that had no locus
standii in the matter only further strengthened the suspicion that larger
forces were at work. Incidentally, Rajkot is the hometown of Rupani who is a
jain .
Tuna,
which is the sole designated port for
livestock export in the country, falls under the Gandhidham chamber of commerce
and industry, which is representative trade body of Kutch and has extended
support to the exporters. Ashish Joshi, the secretary of the body is on record
stating that the livestock exporters had
sought their help and we extended it to them”.
Initially,
it was made out that the curbs were imposed due to representation by animal
rights activists and members of the jain community .However, opponents were
quick to point out that there are no restrictions on either serving or eating
non-vegetarian food in Gujarat. ”No government can ever impose such curbs at
home for fear of losing out on vote share”, said a ruling party politician. Former
Gujarat chief minister Suresh Mehta said
the High Court judgement was an
eye-opener since it has brought out the biased way in which power was exercised
to subvert the very edifices which it was duty bound to protect. And the judgement has clearly damned the
government.
Was
it not Thomas Jefferson, author of the
US declaration of independence and former President who said.” Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for
the government but illegal for the citizenry.!
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