Source: HPI
VIENNA, AUSTRIA, August 21, 2002: Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, from the International Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship, Vienna, Austria, has voiced his concern to Indian Prime Ministers regarding the Indian government’s support of meat production. Swami writes, “It has been brought to our attention by The International Theosophical Order of Service (Sevran, France) that the government of India is currently formulating a policy in support of large scale slaughter of animals and the promotion of meat-eating by Indians, as part of its tenth five-year plan, to boost foreign exchange and encourage economic development.” HPI asked Maneka Gandhi, an animal-right activist and former government minister, for her comments. She responded that this was indeed the case. “There is an official plan of the Planning Commission as the Committee for increasing meat export (that) was started at the behest of Shri KC Pant…. The tussle is not between vegetarians and nonvegetarians but between what is good for India or not. Meat export is draining money out of India and each animal killed costs India approximately US$1,224. No meat exporter pays any taxes in India as they have dummy companies abroad that register losses which are transferred to India. Most of them are in court for not paying water or electricity bills. However this policy of increasing exports has been government policy for the last 4 years as you will see from the APEDA (The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) corporation itself. One attempt by me to stop the illegal cutting of meat in government owned slaughterhouses — as this is strictly forbidden by municipal law — was notified by APEDA on July 15, 1999. This would have immediately stopped 70% of the meat from being exported. However the notification, after it came out, was withdrawn by the Ministry on the same day at the orders of the Prime Minister’s office.”