Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav has advised his party’s leaders and workers to collect old, non-milking cows who roam the streets and tie them to the doors of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders’ homes, apparently as a reply to the ongoing incidents of cow vigilantism in the country.
Yadav made this announcement on the concluding day of the party’s three-day training camp held at Rajgir in Nalanda, which is the home district of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. This was the first time in many years that the RJD has held such a camp outside the state capital.
“Start gathering cows that have passed the milk-producing age and tie them in front of the houses of the BJP leaders to see how they cared about the old cattle,” he told his party men.
“This could be possible they [BJP leaders] may even assault you in that process but don’t get scared. We will have to do only this to test the love of the BJP leaders towards the bovine,” Prasad asserted.
The development comes amid the rising incidents of cow vigilantisms in India. A number of Muslim as well as Dalit villagers have been either assaulted or killed for showing “least respect” to cows.
Last month, a man from Bihar was blinded after the repeated honking of a horn made a cow run away out of panic. The incident took place in eastern Bihar’s Saharsa district in the weekend.
Tension also prevailed in neighbouring Jharkahnd state in April end when cow vigilantes clashed with police after finding three bovine-laden trucks on their way to Bengal from Bihar. Later, police had to use force to calm public ire.
Earlier, on April 11, a man in his 60s was tied to a tree and beaten up mercilessly in Jamshedpur town of Jharkhand by the cow vigilante groups who accused him of being a “cattle smuggler”. His life could be saved as the police reached on time and rescued him.
This comes close on the heels of a Muslim villager beaten to death by the vigilantes in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. The victim had been accused of being a cattle smuggler.
