CHENNAI // Prime minister Narendra Modi has condemned the violence perpetrated by right-wing Hindus across India in the name of protecting the cow, which is considered sacred in Hinduism.
Mr Modi, who has remained silent over the past few months as the number of violent episodes mounted, chose to “express sadness on some of the things going on”, during a speech in his native state of Gujarat on Thursday.
His remarks came a day after several cities witnessed organised protests against the lynchings of Muslims and lower-caste Hindus by right-wing groups.
Crowds collected in New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and other cities holding placards reading: “Not in my name”.
On Tuesday, a mob of at least 100 people in the state of Jharkhand assaulted a Muslim dairy farmer and burned his house down, allegedly after discovering a dead cow outside.
Police sources said the cow had died of natural causes, and that its throat had been slit to give the impression that the farmer, Usman Ansari, had killed it.
Mr Modi, who was speaking at the centenary celebrations of Sabarmati Ashram founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad, evoked the spirit of the independence leader. “We are a land of non-violence. We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi. Why do we forget that?” he said.
“Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti [cow worship] is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve. No person in this nation has the right to take the law in his or her own hands.”
During the election campaign of 2014, Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party promised to outlaw the slaughter of cows, for food or other purposes. In May, the environment ministry imposed a total ban on livestock markets trading in cattle for slaughter.
Between 2010 and 2017, Muslims were the target of more than half of the cow-related incidents of violence, according to an analysis by IndiaSpend, a journalism website that uses public data.
Twenty-four of the 28 people killed in those incidents were Muslims, not including Mr Ansari in Jharkand.
Moreover, 97 per cent of this violence occurred after Mr Modi came to power in 2014.
Including the Jharkhand attack, 21 cow-vigilante attacks have been recorded in India this year.
One of the grisliest attacks occurred last week on a train in Haryana. An argument over seats escalated, resulting in a 16 -year-old boy named Junaid Khan being attacked and killed.
Witnesses said the attackers accused Khan of being a “beef-eater” and of carrying beef in his bag as they stabbed him to death.
Mr Modi and his party have been accused of fomenting these attacks, because of their refusal to criticise vigilantism.
The protests on Wednesday were targeted at Mr Modi’s government. “Stand up to Hindu terrorism,” one banner read in Mumbai. “I refuse to be the citizen of Lynchistan,” read a placard in New Delhi.
Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, noted that the issue had not come up when Mr Modi met President Donald Trump in Washington DC on Monday. Mr Trump “mention the populist hate campaign that has spawned brutal mob killings of suspected of trading or consuming beef,” Ms Ganguly wrote in a blog post.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
