Talking about the cow may be a “crime for some people” but “for us, the cow is mother” and is “revered”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, hitting out at people who “make fun of cows and buffaloes”.
“Some people have created such a situation that talking about the cow and govardhan is some form of a gunah (crime). They have made it a crime. The cow can be a crime for some people, but for us the cow is mother, it is revered,” Mr. Modi said in Varanasi.
The PM made the comments at an event where he laid the foundation stone of the Banas Dairy Sankul, a dairy spread across 30 acres with a facility for processing five lakh litres of milk per day. It will be built at a cost of ₹475 crore, the government has said.
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Mr. Modi stressed on the economic utility of the cow for Indians and said that strengthening the dairy sector in the country was among the top priorities of his government.
“Those who make fun of cows and buffaloes forget that the livelihood of eight crore families in the country is based on livestock. It is due to the effort of these families, India produces milk worth almost ₹8.5 lakh crore each year. This amount is more than the value of wheat and rice produced,” said the PM.
The “double engine government” of Mr. Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was standing strongly and honestly with farmers and cattle rearers, he further said, stressing that milk production in the country had increased by about 45% in the last six-seven years. Today, India produces about 22% of the world’s milk, he said, hailing U.P.’s contribution in the production of milk and the expansion of the dairy sector.
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Mr. Modi said that his government was not only delivering vikas (development) but also promoting the virasat (heritage) of the country but that some people “who think about their selfish interests”, do not like the development of U.P. and had also started “objecting” to the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor recently opened by him in Varanasi. However, he did not make any specific references.
Mr. Modi accused previous governments of viewing U.P. only through the lens of caste and religion. In their “syllabus” and “dictionary”, they only had “mafia vad ,” “ parivarvad ” (nepotism) and illegal grab of homes and land, he said. “When I talk of the double development of Kashi and U.P. by the double engine government, some people feel pained,” he added.
The PM also digitally transferred about ₹35 crore as bonus to the bank accounts of more than 1.7 lakh milk producers associated with Banas Dairy, and laid the foundation stone for the biogas-based electricity generation plant for the Milk Producers Cooperative Union plant in Ramnagar.