Some creating tension in the name of cow protection: Modi
A day after expressing his angst over cow vigilantes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the country’s citizens should beware of such ‘fake’ groups and individuals who were deliberately disturbing the peace and public order.
‘People should be beware of fake cow vigilantes… Some people want tension in the society in the name of cow protection,’ Modi said after inaugurating Mission Bhagiratha, the piped drinking water scheme in Telangana’s Medak district.
He further asked state governments to take action against such cow vigilantes.
Modi had on Saturday too lashed out at the self-styled cow protectors and said he felt ‘very angry’ and has asked state governments to prepare a dossier of people who are ‘running shops’ in the name of cow protection.
The opposition parties have been criticising the Prime Minister for his ‘silence’ amid growing incidents of attacks on Dalits and Muslims by ‘gau rakshaks’ in various parts of the country.
The Modi government at the Centre and BJP governments in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have come under strong criticism for attacks on Dalits and Muslims by vigilante groups amid the charge that the law enforcement agencies remained mute spectators.
Four Dalit youths were flogged by cow vigilantes near Gujarat’s Una town on July 11.
In BJP-ruled Jharkhand, two Muslim cattle herders were hanged by a local cow protection vigilante group in March this year.
Last month two Muslim women were beaten up at Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh on the suspicion of carrying beef even as policemen at the spot just looked on.
The Modi government had also come under attack last year following the lynching of Mohd Akhlaq in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly keeping beef in his refrigerator.
Modi launched a slew of development projects in Telangana on Sunday including a 1600 MW thermal power station of NTPC and fertiliser plant of FCIL, a university of health sciences, and a rail line, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
