Now, RSS seeks ‘cow pilgrimage’ site in U’khand
NEWDELHI: If the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has its way, the hill state of Uttarakh and may soon get a cow pilgrimage centre.
Top RSS functionaries met chief minister Trivendra Singh Raw at on Wednesday and suggested that the village of Katarpurin Harid war district be developed into a cow pilgrimage site since it was where several Hindus laid down their lives in 1918 to stop the killing of a cow.
“Many Hindus of this village were killed by Muslims and the British during a protest against the attempt to kill a cow in 1918. Four Hindus we rehanged and 135 others jailed during the protest,” Dinesh Semwal, the RSS zonal head, said in a statement.
RS S general secretaries Dattatreya Hosabale, Gopal Kishan and the national general secretary of ruling B JP, Ram Lal, were present at the meeting that also had Uttarakh and tourism minis- te rS at pal Ma ha raj in attendance.
Katarpur, 70 km from state capital Dehradun, already has a ‘Gau Rakshak memorial’ where an annual function is organised to pay tributes to those who laid down their lives to protect the cow.
The villagers have also been demanding that those who died be declared “freedom fighters’.
“It is a holy site for us. We have been demanding freedom fighter status for the four martyrs for long,” said local villager Rajendra Chauhan.
Uttarak hand is famous for the Char Dham Yatra — the four Hindu pilgrim ages to Bad rina th, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
Local BJP legislator Swami Ya ti sh war an and told HT that the state government was keen to implement the RSS suggestion. Rekha Arya, the state’s minister of state for animal husbandary said the government definitely endorsed the idea of having a pilgrim spot focusing on cows.
Considered holy by Hindus, cows have become an emotive issue in particularly BJP-ruled states of the country with vigilantes targeting those engaged in their trade and slaughter.
Several states have also brought in new measures to protect cows, including the introduction of cess to develop cow shelters. However, reports of the bovines dying of hunger in cow shelters continue top our in amid the frenzy.