Bajrang Dal sees red over Centre’s failure to bring law to protect cows

NEWDELHI: At the end of its threeday national convention in Bhopal on Sunday, the Bajrang Dal blamed the government for failing to bring in a central law to protect cows and vilifying Hindutva groups who revere the bovine.

The Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a part of the extended Sangh Parivar, passed three resolutions, which included one on ‘commitment to cow protection’.

These ‘reminders’ from the Bajrang Dal about a cow protection law, the need to hasten the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the call for scrapping Article 370 in J&K and the reiteration of all Indians being Hindus, are messages to the government to stay on course and consolidate the majority vote.

This comes even as the issue of cow protection has resurfaced in Gujarat, where the memory of the flogging of seven Dalits by alleged “gau rakshaks” (cow vigilantes) in Una for skinning a dead cow is alive. While the BJP governments in Gujarat and at the Centre would appear keen to side step the contentious issue, outfits such as the Bajrang Dal seem unwilling to tone down their rhetoric.

“If gau rakshaks have taken to the streets, it is because of the government’s failure. There is no central law; every year gau rakshaks and even security forces are attacked by cow smugglers. There may have been 16 -17 incidents of attacks by gau rakshaks, but we have a list of over 140 attacks on them,” said the international joint general secretary of the VHP, Surendra Jain. The issue of cow protection is also not just a demand for a law that bans all bovine slaughter; it is an indication of simmering discontent and a power tussle within the Sangh Parivar.

The Bajrang Dal and other outfits, which claim credit for helping the BJP win the 2014 Lok Sabha election, are not willing to remain on the sidelines.

THE BAJRANG DAL PASSED THREE RESOLUTIONS, WHICH INCLUDED ONE ON COMMITMENT TO

COW PROTECTION