In a hard-hitting statement, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “insulting” the cow protectors.
In a hard-hitting statement, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “insulting” the cow protectors. The VHP also claimed that the Central government’s advisory to states against cow vigilantes amounted to their “racial profiling”.
Claiming that beef export has gone up by 44 per cent in the last three years, VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia, in a press meet on Saturday in the national capital, slammed the Prime Minister’s statement in a town hall interaction against cow vigilante groups, whom he had dubbed “anti-social”. The Prime Minister’s statement had come amidst rising protests by dalits in Gujrat against the public flogging of a few youth by the alleged clow vigilantes.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by calling cow vigilantes anti-social, has insulted them. The government should rather have talked to them. The PM’s directive to states to create dossiers of cow vigilantes amounts to racial profiling of Hindus as they are the ones who give their lives for protecting the animal,” said Mr Togadia.
The VHP leader who had been sidelined in Gujarat when Mr Modi was the chief minister of the state, reportedly does not share a good equation with the Prime Minister. Mr Togadia expressed agony over the Prime Minister’s remarks against cow vigilantes. Seeking to turn the table against the Prime Minister, the VHP leader questioned why the “head of the country” has given a clean chit to “cow butchers” and victimised cow protectors, who have been his avid supporters and helped him to get elected. “In place of appreciating the efforts of Hindus to save cows and initiating a sincere dialogue with these simple, non-fancy, gau rakshaks, Mr Modi termed 80 per cent of them as anti-social. That was an insult, not only of mother cow, but also of Hindus and all those who gave their lives for protecting cows,” said the VHP leader, while asking Mr Modi to prove his allegation that 80 per cent of “gau rakshaks” indulged in anti-social activities.
“Special dossiers are made of terrorists, serial rapists. Here, the dossiers are being made of Hindu gau rakshaks but not of cow killers,” he said.
