Violence in the name of cow protection defamed the cause, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said here on Sunday, and called for a law banning cow slaughter across the country.
“We desire that cow slaughter be banned across India. Now law-making is the work of the government. Many State governments — where there are RSS volunteers in government — have brought this law. We desire such a law across India,” Mr. Bhagwat said here on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.
Calling cow slaughter a “vice” that must be removed, he called for cow protection efforts by bringing more people into the campaign while “completely obeying the law and the Constitution.” “Nothing should be done while protecting cows that hurts the beliefs of some people. Nothing should be done that is violent. It only defames the efforts of cow protectors... The work of cow conservation should be carried out while obeying laws and the Constitution,” he said.
Mr. Bhagwat’s remarks come in the wake of the killing of a Muslim, Pehlu Khan, by cow vigilantes at Alwar in BJP-ruled Rajasthan.
If there is a law, it will be for promoting non-violence rather than violence, Mr. Bhagwat said. “There cannot be a law that says you do violence. It is impossible,” the RSS chief said.
Cow protection should be promoted in such a way that it wins over more and more people to the cause and brings praise for those doing it, Mr. Bhagwat said.
He asserted that non-violent efforts alone would help change the law.
“I am confident that wherever RSS workers are in power, they will deal with local complexities and work in that direction,” he said.
He added that whether there was a law or not, cow slaughter would stop if society’s behaviour changed.
Mr. Bhagwat said that as a veterinary doctor he was aware of a ‘desi’ cow’s utility, including the usefulness of its urine and dung.
Even scientific bodies were now accepting this, he claimed.
(with inputs from PTI)
