Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Women slapped, kicked for carrying ‘beef’ in MP Fadnavis uses Saamana to mend ties with Uddhav
IN PARLIAMENT Oppn slams govt over increasing violence by cow vigilantes
A mob slapped, punched and kicked two Muslim women on suspicion they were carrying beef in Madhya Pradesh, an incident that spurred the Opposition to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)led government at the Centre in Parliament over increasing violence by cow vigilantes.
A veterinary test later revealed the 30kg of meat seized from the women at Mandsaur railway station on Tuesday was buffalo and not beef, state home minister Bhoopendra Singh said on Wednesday.
Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them is illegal in most states, including in MP. The state and many others also bar the sale and possession of beef.
The slaughter of buffalo and consumption of its meat are legal in MP, but sellers need a permit from the local civic body. Since the women didn’t have one, they were booked but later released on bail.
On their complaint, the police registered a case of criminal assault and wrongful confinement against unidentified persons.
The incident came two weeks after four Dalit men were beaten up by gau rakshaks (cow protection activists) in Gujarat, allegedly for skinning a dead cow. It brought back memories of the mob lynching of Mohammad Ikhlaq over rumours of eating beef in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri district in December.
On Uddhav Thackeray’s 56th birthday, CM Devendra Fadnavis used the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana — through which some of its fiercest attacks on the BJP have been launched — to signal a fresh attempt to reconcile with his ally, addressing the Sena chief as an “elder brother”. The irony was hard to miss. Just a day ago, the same pages saw Thackeray make some of his strongest statements in recent times, threatening to pull the plug on the Fadnavis government.
On Wednesday, the BJP and its top leaders seemed to have put the insults behind. While Fadnavis wrote a special piece for Thackeray on his birthday, paying an ode to his “logical thinking”, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray met supporters on his 56th birthday on Wednesday. PM Narendra Modi reached out on Twitter and so did Union home minister Rajnath Singh. Sources said even BJP ministers in the state called Thackeray and wished him.