JOIN USVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) working president Praveen Togadia on Saturday expressed “utmost dissatisfaction and agony” over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s condemnation of cow vigilantes.
“It is agonising that despite knowing the gamut of butchering cows and cow progeny, rather than making efforts to protect the cow, the head of the government has put the cow protectors’ lives in danger,” Togadia said at a press conference here.
He demanded that Modi “disclose the basis of the data” with which he charged that 80% of the cow protectors are nothing but anti-social elements.
Among the larger Hindutva organisations, the RSS had come out in support of the prime minister to defuse public outrage and minimise the impact of cow vigilantism on Schedule Castes ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana.
Taking exception to the prime minister asking states to create a dossier of cow protectors, Togadia said the call was tantamount to “racial profiling” of a particular community and bracketing them with terrorists.
Togadia also said that without reaching out to vigilante groups, which he claimed had to hit the streets since laws for protecting cows were not implemented properly, Modi painted them in black.
“Rather than appreciating Hindu efforts to save cows and initiating a sincere dialogue..., terming 80% of them ‘anti-social’ and ‘goondas’ is an insult to all those who have dedicated their lives to protect cows,” Togadia said.
He urged the prime minister to “disclose the basis” of his remark that more bovine die of consuming plastics than by butchering. There are requests from Hindus, the VHP leader said, that Modi explain to the nation what he in his previous stint as Gujarat chief minister did to stop the use of plastic.
He said Modi has had a love-hate relationship with the VHP since his Gujarat days. In 1980s, both RSS functionaries — Togadia and Modi — together propagated Hindutva ideology in Gujarat.