Think tank to BJP's rescue on issues of 'beef' and identity politics

The India Foundation will discuss contentious issues plaguing the party at a three-day conclave in Goa

The India Foundation, a think tank associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will discuss contentious issues such as links between beef consumption and identity politics, as well as the motivation of writers who have returned their awards to protest the killings of rationalists and authors.

The discussions would be held at a three-day conclave in Goa in mid-November. Leading politicians and intellectuals are likely to attend the conclave.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav, member of the India Foundation board, said the party has been vilified in the past couple of months over issues ranging from eating habits to atrocities on a Dalit family in Haryana, and it hasn’t even been allowed to articulate its position. The conclave would try to correct this, the organiser said, by “logically debating these issues in a manner not possible in television studios”.

The India Foundation has central ministers Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman and Jayant Sinha, Madhav and party MP MJ Akbar, among others, on its board of directors. This year's will be the second edition of its annual conclave.

Participants in the conclave will include spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev, Prime Minister of Bhutan Lyonchhen T Tobgay, Nagaland CM TR Zeilang, author Patrick French, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce founder Milind Kamble, Professor Walter Anderson, Jammu and Kashmir CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind General Secretary Mehmood Madani.

The session, "Are Lifestyle Issues Becoming Identity Politics", will discuss the politics over beef consumption. The BJP is of the view that the controversy has been raked to defame the party and been given a religious twist by organizing 'beef festivals', when it isn't 'beef' but 'cows' that Hindus hold sacred.

A source said how even Kashmiri separatist leader SAS Geelani had appealed to Muslims in Kashmir to not slaughter cows for this year's Id in honour of the sentiments of the Hindus. A BJP leader said the party wants people to understand how only slaughter of cow and its progeny is banned in 25-states of India and not that of beef, which are mostly oxen and buffaloes.

In its session, 'The Pen Warriors - Literary Battles for Civilizational Ideas', the conclave will discuss the returning of their awards Sahitya Akademi and Padma awards by writers to protests the murders of activists and rationalists. J and K CM Sayeed will speak on 'Kashmiriyat, Jamhuriyat, Insaniyat'.

Other sessions include 'Where East Meets West', 'In Search of Lakshmi - Towards Indic Politics', 'Identity Politics in the Northeast' and 'Digitisation - the Future of India'.