Donald Trump has made a laughingstock of his country. Far from making it great again, he is taking it down into the dumps. Are we Indians heading in the same direction?

It would seem so, from the way we are treating our dogs. Thanks to the latest order from the Supreme Court, dogs are now our most valued citizens. Outraged middle-class dog lovers took to the streets of Delhi to protest the August 11 order by a two-judge bench that had taken cognisance of the stray dog menace. It had ordered them to be impounded, sterilised and vaccinated.

Eleven days later, a three-judge bench modified the previous order, describing it as impractical to impound over one lakh dogs in two months. Now, after sterilisation and vaccination, the docile dogs would be returned to their original localities from where they were picked up. The court further ordered that this order would be applicable nationwide, not just in the Delhi/NCR region. It also ordered that no one was to feed stray dogs on the roads, but only in designated feeding areas! Pray tell me, how practical is this fresh order?

One order provided them with dormitories; the next one provided them with refectories. All hail the Indian stray dog! They are now the first citizens of India! Perhaps the Republic Day Parade 2026 will be led by a contingent of "docile" stray dogs, possibly under the watchful eyes of the Supreme Court. Hey, there are millions of fellow Indians living below the poverty line, not just in the NCR. What about dormitories and refectories for them? Does India's middle class care more for dogs than for human beings?

Maneka Gandhi and her nephew Rahul both rooted for the canine cause. Fair enough, but can it be at the expense of horrendous attacks on vulnerable human beings? The USA had a movement called "Black Lives Matter." The Indian version could well now be "Dogs' Lives Matter".

This reminds me of the 2000 song by Baha Men, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" We Indians have the answer to that – the holier-than-thou middle class and the pressure they brought to bear on the judiciary.

I will here make a comparison with stray cattle in UP. When Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister, cracked down on illegal cattle smuggling, the cattle owners simply released their cows, which had run dry, onto the roads and fields, causing a major ecological disaster. The UP Government has subsequently spent crores of rupees for impounding and feeding stray cattle, and placing them in gaushalas that now serve as both dormitories and refectories. The point here is that where there is political will, there is a way. The same principle could verily have applied to the two-bench order for dogs.

As for the stray cattle, I have some reservations that may not go down well in some quarters. If India is today the world leader in milk production, thanks to Padma Vibhushan Dr Verghese Kurien of Amul fame, it was largely due to buffalo milk. The dairy sector prefers buffaloes to cows, because of higher milk yield and fat content, as well as the sale value of the buffalo that has gone dry. Its meat, hide, bones, and hooves all have commercial value. So the dairy owner is not at a loss.

In contrast, when a cow goes dry, it becomes an overnight liability, so it is abandoned. A government that chooses religious beliefs over economic realities picks up the tab with taxpayers' money. I daresay that this also exposes the hypocrisy of the cattle owners. One day, the cow is your mother, the next day, it is a bother to be passed on to the government.

Should the liability for caring for a dry cow not vest in the owner of the cow who, for years, literally milked it dry? Having benefited from the sale of its milk, is it not now incumbent on them to take responsibility for the dry cow? Why palm it off on the government?

Not just cows and dogs, what about monkeys and rats, both of which are again considered sacred? They are vermin that destroy more than they consume. One cannot walk down the prestigious Mall Road in Shimla without being violently attacked by monkeys. Will the Hon'ble Supreme Court please take suo motu cognisance of these? Or should we stoically say, "Human lives don't matter because religious beliefs are paramount and sacrosanct?"

The headline of this article also stated "Jail the hound." As we know, the hound is a dog breed, used primarily for racing or hunting. Since hounds have a heightened sense of smell, they can identify their prey, such as rabbits or foxes. Not so long ago, this was a favourite sport of the British nobility.

Journalists, especially investigative reporters, are often referred to as news hounds because of their ability to ferret out a good story. Sadly, in our country, the media is under constant attack, the latest being a case filed against Abhisar Sharma. Several YouTube channels have been shut down by a government that is intolerant of contrarian views or objective criticism. Countless journalists and human rights activists languish in jail without bail, despite the Supreme Court's sonorous sermons that bail is the rule and jail is the exception.

The most tragic case is that of the octogenarian Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, arrested on frivolous and fabricated charges of being a Naxal sympathiser. He was so frail that he could not even drink water without a sipper or a straw. But the mighty Indian state felt threatened by him, letting him languish in jail, where he eventually died without an opportunity of being heard.

Contrast this with the overnight bail granted to Arnab Goswami by the Supreme Court, possibly because his war cry, "The Nation Wants to Know," was limited to praising the Prime Minister. Double standards!

We don't need the Supreme Court to tell us how to help "strays" in our society. Our conscience should suffice. By all means, do look after stray dogs, but don't miss the wood for the trees. There is no dearth of "strays" crying out for justice or basic human dignity. Let us make India great again, but not the Trumpian way.