The Nagaland Congress has said the Assam Cattle Preservation Bill 2021, which was tabled in the Assam Assembly on Monday, is a threat to the Northeast inherent trade and food habits.
“It is a threat to peaceful coexistence,” Nagaland Congress president K Therie said on Tuesday.
He said caution should be taken before passing the Bill and added that it should not be detrimental to the inherent trade and food habits of the region.
“Cow trade in the Northeast extends to Bangladesh and Myanmar through Assam’s length and breadth since time immemorial for the hill states,” Therie stated.
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He said any restriction through the Bill will be detrimental to the inherent trade and food habits.
The Nagaland Congress feared that the greater threat will come when the law is misused to implicate people unnecessarily.
Therie called the Assam Cattle Bill an imitation of mainland BJP states which have passed cow protection bills.
“We cannot simply change our culture to suit the mainland as we need to be tolerant with the surrounding environment,” he stated.
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Saying that Assam has the right to legislate its own laws, the Nagaland Congress, however, said, “The Bill should not forget that we are a Union of States and we are economically interdependent.”
Nagaland Congress hoped that “good sense will prevail” in the Assam Assembly.