New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s order on the shifting of stray dogs to shelters has brought the Gandhis—Rahul, Priyanka, Maneka, and Varun—together to oppose it in one voice.
It’s not often that the families of Sanjay and Rajiv speak in unison on any contentious subject, after Sanjay’s wife Maneka left Indira Gandhi’s home in 1982 following differences with her and subsequently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Her son Varun followed later to enter the BJP ranks.
Reacting to the SC order, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to the social media and termed the directive as a “step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy”.
“The SC’s directive to remove all stray dogs from Delhi-NCR is a step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy. These voiceless souls are not “problems” to be erased,” he said.
The need of the hour, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, is to have ‘shelters, sterilisation, vaccination and community care’ to keep the streets safe without cruelty.
“Blanket removals are cruel, shortsighted, and strip us of compassion. We can ensure public safety and animal welfare go hand in hand,” he added.
In her message on X, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra expressed concern on the possibility of inhumane treatment that stray canines could face during the process of their shifting to shelters.
“Surely there is a better way to manage the situation and a humane way can be found in which these innocent animals are looked after and kept safe as well,” she said. “Dogs are the most beautiful, gentle creatures, they do not deserve this kind of cruelty.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by his cousin and former Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi who said, “nations face deeper moral crises when they step away from empathy”.
“The Suo Moto order on stray dogs by the Supreme Court is an institutionalisation of cruelty and a harbinger of a legal structure that seeks to punish those who cannot fend for themselves. How long before this extends to stray cows, the underprivileged and unauthorised settlements…,” he posted on X.
On Monday, the Supreme Court said that stray dogs must be shifted away from residential localities in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and that any organisation blocking the exercise would face “the strictest action”.
Setting an eight-week deadline for civic authorities to pick up all stray dogs from public spaces and house them in dedicated shelters, a bench of Justices J.B.Pardiwala and R.Mahadevan stressed that “all localities should be made free of stray dogs” and that “there should not be any compromise in undertaking any exercise.”
Former Union minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi said it is not a “doable order”. “This is a very strange judgment given by someone who is in anger. As you know angry judgments are never sensible,” she told the media.
Implementing this order, she said, would be a difficult task. “There is no single government-run shelter in Delhi. In how many shelters would you put 3 lakh dogs? You don’t even have one. To make those shelters, you have to spend at least Rs 15,000 crore… You’ll have to find 3,000 places for shelters in places where no one lives. How will you find these many places?… This can’t be done in two months… You’ll have to employ 1.5 lakh people to just be sanitation workers, which will again cost crores…”.
Soon after the Supreme Court’s order, a number of animal rights activists and others took to the street and protested in front of India Gate. Following this, the Delhi Police detained a number of animal rights activists, rescuers, and dog lovers.
“Firstly, when they go to get the dogs, there will be fighting in every street because feeders are not going to let the dogs go. Every day, there will be fights. Do we want this destabilisation situation? You know, other political parties will get into it to attack the BJP for what reason? When the dogs from here are displaced, dogs from nearby states will come to Delhi, as there will be more food here. Then, within a week, there will be another 3 lakh dogs in Delhi again, and these will not be sterilised. So what will you do? Will you start another sterilisation programme and spend hundreds of crores again?…”
Maneka further said the judgment “seems to have been given without any rational thought and stems from anger”.
“And the odd part is it’s based on a newspaper clip of a child attacked and killed by a set of dogs. Unfortunately, in that case the child was not attacked and killed by dogs but the family has confirmed the child died of meningitis,” the animal rights advocate said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also read: Why activists see SC order on removal of stray dogs as ‘violation’ of 2023 ABC rules