No cow, no Indian culture, Yogi tells gau rakshaks

Only the community that can protect this heritage will survive. Otherwise there will be a huge crisis of identity. YOGI ADITYANATH, UP chief minister

LUCKNOW: “There is only one way to protect Indian culture: to protect gau (cows), Ganga, and (goddess) Gayatri,” pronounced Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath at India’s first national convention of cow protectors (gau rakshaks) in Lucknow organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to set “the agenda for the future”.

“Only the community that can protect this heritage will survive. Otherwise there will be a huge crisis of identity, and this crisis of identity will endanger our existence,” he said to applause from hundreds of gau rakshaks who had come to listen to him from across the country.

“I want to clearly state that it has only been seven months since this government came to power, but this is the first government that has put locks on the gates of illegal slaughterhouses and recovered 33,000 hectares of grazing land. Today, no one can dare to smuggle even a pinch of cow meat out of Uttar Pradesh,” the chief minister continued.

Shoving his smartphone in the air, Ratnesh Veerval, a gau rakshak from Chittorgarh, started broadcasting the speech live on Facebook, tagging members of his vigilante group back home, only to find his idol change tack.

“Our working style shouldn’t cause aggravation in society,” said Adityanath. He appealed to them to find a solution to what he outlined as the biggest problem currently facing cows in UP.

“The problem is not that people will smuggle cows. Or illegally kill cows. The problem is that everywhere you look, people have abandoned their cows... You should work to make sure that every family in your village takes responsibility for their cows whether they are yielding milk or not. Every family should be linked to a cow.”