Stop eating beef, give cow status of Rashtra Mata, say RSS, BJP leaders

Stop eating beef and give cow the status of 'Rashtra Mata', say some leaders of the RSS and the BJP as a way out to end the mob lynching of cow smuggling suspects that has sparked outrage in the country.

As the latest incident of the killing of a Muslim man over suspicion of being a cow smuggler in Rajasthan's Alwar district raised political temperatures, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Tuesday dubbed those raising the issue of lynching as "hypocrites", saying they have forgotten the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the alleged "lynching of karsevaks" in 2002 that triggered communal riots in Gujarat, reports PTI.

RSS leader Indresh Kumar said if the practice of eating cow meat was stopped, many crimes of the 'Satan' could be curtailed, in an apparent reference to the incidents of mob lynching.

"If the practice of eating cow meat is stopped, many such crimes of the 'Satan' could be stopped," he said in Ranchi where he was there to attend a programme of the Hindu Jagran Manch on Monday.

Union minister Giriraj Singh appeared to endorse the views of Kumar on the need for stopping the practice of eating cow meat, noting that he is a "mature" man and that whatever he said must be "after a proper thought".

Escalating the row over the Alwar incident, Rajasthan minister Jaswant Yadav asked Muslims to stop the cow smuggling business, saying it it "boils the blood of the Hindus".

Offering condolences to the family of the victim, Yadav,a senior BJP leader, said he stood against those who take law into their hands.