Indian state expands penalty for killing cows to life in prison

NEW DELHI — The Indian state of Gujarat is tightening the punishment for the slaughter of cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The move Friday came after a government crackdown on the largely Muslim-run buffalo slaughterhouses in the state of Uttar Pradesh and after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, won the state’s elections in a landslide. That victory led to the appointment of hard-line Hindu cleric Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

It is legal to slaughter buffalo cows after they no longer produce milk, but Hindu activists in Uttar Pradesh said the industry masked the illicit slaughter of cows.

The slaughter of cows has long been illegal under an existing law in Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister until 2014. The stricter law raises the maximum punishment from seven years in prison.

The penalty for transporting beef also was raised to a maximum of 10 years, from three, and the state authorities now will be allowed to confiscate any vehicle used to transport beef, said Babubhai Bokhiriya, the state minister of animal husbandry and water resources.

Vijay Rupani, the chief minister of Gujarat, posted on Twitter that the new laws, which were passed by the state assembly and will need to be signed by the governor, Om Prakash Kohli,were among the most restrictive in India.

“To Indians, the cow symbolizes all other creatures,” he wrote. “The cow is a symbol of the earth, the nourisher, the ever-giving, undemanding provider.”

“Protection of cows is the single-most important principle towards saving the whole world from both moral and spiritual degradation,” he added.

But political opponents of the government said that the new law was intended to capitalize on Hindu nationalist fervor and that it would alienate minorities.

“This is not out of concern for cows,” Shaktisinh Gohil, a member of the opposition party Indian National Congress, told The Hindustan Times. “The BJP has passed this bill to get votes.”

Gujarat, long a stronghold of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, is scheduled to hold state elections at the end of the year.

The slaughter of cows is banned in most Indian states, with some states having tightened punishment in recent years.