New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that strict action will be taken against 'cow vigilantes' indulging in violence, news agency PTI reported.
Speaking at an all-party meeting ahead of the Parliament monsoon session, the Prime Minister said, “I have asked states to take strict action against those violating law in name of cow protection.”
PM Modi went on to say that the the country does not gain from the violence in the name of cow protection and urged everyone to not to take law into their hands. “It (cow vigilantism) should not be given political or communal colour; the nation doesn’t benefit from it. There is a widespread belief that cow is like mother but this should not let people take law in their own hands,” PM Modi said.
Union Minister Ananth Kumar, after the all-party meet, also iterated PM Modi’s statements and said those committing violence will face severe prosecution. “Those committing violence in the name of cow protection will face severe prosecution,” Kumar said, according to news agency ANI.
Kumar went on to add that PM Modi expressed concern about the flood situation in North-east India in the meet. “PM Modi said that he has started a war against corruption and he called all-party meet for the same reason,” Kumar added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Police on Sunday claimed that the man who was thrashed allegedly by cow vigilantes in Nagpur earlier this week, was carrying beef. The forensic lab report was “positive”, i.e. it was beef, Superintendent of Police (Nagpur rural) Shailesh Balkawde told PTI. Officials further said that they will probe the matter further.
Last month, PM Modi, in a speech at Sabarmati Ashram, had said that killing in the name of cow is unacceptable in “Mahatma Gandhi’s India”. His remarks had come after protests raged across the country against the mob lynching of a 15-year-old boy, Junaid, who was stabbed on a train in Haryana. “Killing people in the name of gau bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve,” PM Modi had said.
