Media rumours and vicious RWAs have been worst for animals during Covid: Maneka Gandhi

I am delighted by the coming of age of the volunteer animal movement but RWA cruelties are increasing and street police have been a nuisance.

Representational image | Dogs on the streets of Lucknow | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

When the nationwide lockdown was announced on 24 March to stop the coronavirus from spreading, I immediately gave my phone number all over the country for animal volunteers who needed help. I thought that perhaps only a few organisations would get in touch. Not so. Thousands of calls started coming in from people who needed passes for feeding animals, people who were being accosted by the street police while feeding and people who were suffering from the viciousness of Resident Welfare Associations.

I am delighted by the coming of age of the volunteer animal movement. Now that we have over one lakh people whom I can identify across India, the next step is to organise them into legal champions and policy makers in their states.

Citizens became leaders, police at their best 

Some people, to my delight, have become leaders during this time: Kaveri Rana of Noida, Chetna Joshi (Gurgaon), Nirali Koradia, Lata Parmar (Mumbai), Shivanand Dambal (Bengaluru), Nighat Lone (Kashmir), Rumpy Madaan (Jammu), Tejovanth Anopunjo (Guntur), Ajay Daga (Kolkata), Shakuntala Majumdar (Thane), Norma Alvares (Goa), Gauri Maulekhi and Meenakshee Awasthi, to name a few. Two people who stand out are Ishita Yadav and Kanika Dewan, who handled my communications with the country so that everyone knew the laws of different states.

I spoke to practically all the chief ministers and chief secretaries. Barring Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, who, I was told by his household managers, refuses to speak to anyone and does not even carry a phone, and Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao, who is a law unto himself, all of them immediately understood the need for feeding animals during this time. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik immediately announced that money for feeding animals would be given to each Nagar Palika (municipal council) and municipality. Each chief secretary was mature, open to learning and understood what would happen if the street animals were not fed. All except one, that is. The chief secretary of Punjab gave me a long, ill-informed and pompous lecture on how I should think of people first and to hell with every other species. But even he pales before the arrogance and bad temper of the chief secretary of Telangana, who has banned passes for anyone, and has been the least helpful to any common citizen for anything till now.

But in almost every state, all senior police officers — from SHOs and DCPs to the city commissioners and state DGPs — have been wonderful. They were sensible, flexible and mature in their responses and, above all, compassionate. They came on the lines directly and were willing to listen to the smallest problem. The three outstanding heads of police have been commissioners S.N. Srivastava (Delhi), Paramvir Singh (Mumbai), and Bhaskar Rao (Bengaluru). They helped feeders, changed timings to suit people, and intervened to solve problems. The DCPs of the districts bordering Mumbai and of Delhi have been equally intelligent and quick in their responses. While the SPs of Punjab were usually helpful, their people on the ground, especially Ludhiana, were a nuisance.

A special mention for Haryana where the least harassment took place in any district. The municipal commissioner of Gurgaon, Vinay Pratap Singh, is a good, intelligent man and he found solutions quickly. I would like to thank Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar for showing the way with his practical approach.

There were exceptions, of course

On the other hand, the street police have been a nuisance. Quick to stop and hit, many were unnecessarily abusive – specially in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Thane. Jharkhand typically thought of a money making solution as officers stood on the road, often in plain clothes, threatening to arrest people who had passes unless they gave money. I spoke to the SP in one case and perhaps it has stopped. An SHO in Delhi went prowling every night to find women feeders, and to take them back to his thana where he sat and chatted with them till midnight or so. I had to complain three times, because this seemed to be a perversion rather than disciplinary action. He stopped.

The district collectors were equally amazing except for the woman in Mangalore, who used her “power” to be mean to the poor. All others were as kind as possible. They did not insulate themselves, they solved problems and, for once, showed what bureaucracy, if headed by the gentle, could do. Chandigarh, in spite of having a good deputy commissioner, had the least sense when it came to giving passes and I am told the problem was the whimsy of the lieutenant governor. The person in charge gave passes to each applicant for two hours per day, forcing them to come back daily, go through police pickets, and increase the chances of spreading coronavirus. The local veterinary hospital, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), was also closed for no reason. Compare this stupidity to the instant responses of the heads of Mohali, Dayalan and Panchkula, who not only involved local NGOs, but also responded to animal sickness and accident cases with vets who treated them on the spot.

A special mention for Tamil Nadu where I had to intervene the least. Business people, hotels and animal groups, like the Blue Cross, joined together to feed and care for animals. Only the ‘oversmart’ head of IIT Madras in Chennai used his particular form of “scientific knowledge” to be mean to students who had stayed behind specifically to feed campus animals. A very big thank you to the Jindal University students who, en masse, revolted against the administration’s viciousness until they had to cave in. Six hundred students joined the Animal Welfare Club.

Pune, which has an excellent district magistrate but over 2,000 really cantankerous feeders, stressed me the most. Fortunately, Neha Panchamia of ResQ and Puneeta Khanna of People for Animals (PFA) took most of my burden after a bit. Bengaluru, where most feeders spent a lot of time fighting with each other and Mira Road in Thane, where people who misused their passes, also bothered me a lot.

Media rumours, vicious RWAs

There are two groups that have made me really sad: the press and the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).

The press spread the filthiest and most untrue rumours all the time. One channel would do it. Then I would intervene to ask them to stop which they would, and then another would start. ABP of Kolkata was the worst with a constant tirade against cats. This led to thousands of cats being abused and to many deaths. When they stopped, News18 and Dainik Bhaskar took it up. They stopped when doctors, including AIIMs director Dr Randeep Guleria and his colleague Dr Chandrakant Pandav, pitched in to tell the truth. Now, Aaj Tak channel has started accusing dogs of giving the coronavirus – in spite of the fact that not a single dog or cat has got it till now. But no doubt animal haters will use this. Local channels like the little known Sidharth TV in Bengaluru and ThePrint, which published a Bloomberg article, pick up this kind of news. Why has the press been doing this? With a captive audience and no news except Covid-19, they look to raise their TRPs by creating fears. I am waiting for them to announce that ants and cockroaches give the coronavirus.

The RWAs, usually headed by old, vicious retirees, behaved so disgracefully across the country that this entire system should be abolished. As it is, the RWAs have no legal standing. But that did not stop them from attacking people in their communities for feeding animals, making guards hit all animals, stopping people from coming down to let their animals pee or defecate even if they cleaned the place, ranting viciously on community Facebooks against residents, entering people’s homes and giving them notices to leave, closing gates at random with their paid security guards to stop people with legal passes from feeding street animals.

They got even braver when the feeders or keepers of animals were women-only households or single women. It has been like World War 3 in every gated community across India. When I intervened, as I do in about 50+ cases a day with the laws, then they backed down. But generally, I am appalled to see so much hatred generated at a time when we should be the calmest and most generous. We should look closely at who stands for election here, because it impacts much more than an MP or MLA election.

We are now entering the second phase. The feeders are running out of money. While the demand for passes is more or less over – I now need to ask for less than 20 a day (as compared to 500 a day earlier) – but the RWA cruelties are increasing. And, as people get bored, they look for reasons to be unhappy and fight. Meditate, play cards, read, don’t watch TV, feed birds and animals and above all, be compassionate. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has asked people to think of the street animals. This is not a world the animals have made. So be kind.

Maneka Gandhi, Sultanpur MP and former women and child development minister, is an animal rights activist. She is the founder-chairperson of People for Animals organisation. Views are personal.