In MP, villagers parade cattle movers to police station; forced to chant 'Gau Mata ki jai'
Khandwa (MP): Over 100 villagers tied 25 people with a rope and paraded them through a two-km stretch to a police station in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday for allegedly transporting cows to Maharashtra, police said.
A video of the purported incident showed several villagers carrying sticks and forcing the alleged cattle-transporters to do sit-ups holding their ears amid cries of "Gau Mata Ki Jai".
The incident happened in Sanwalikheda village in Khalwas area, about 60 kilometres from the district headquarters, a police official said.
"We have booked the people ferrying the cattle for doing so without requisite permissions. We have also lodged a case against the villagers, including farmers, for ill-treating those booked for unauthorised cattle transport," Khandwa Superintendent of Police Shiv Dayal Singh told PTI.
"Villagers brought the group transporting cows to our police station. We seized 21 trucks used for the purpose. The cows have been shifted to a shelter. They were taking the cows from Harda district in MP to Maharashtra," said Inspector Harishanker Rawat of Khalwas police station.
#WATCH Several people tied with a rope and made to chant "Gau mata ki jai" in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh on accusation of carrying cattle in their vehicles. (7.7.19) (Note - Abusive language) pic.twitter.com/5pbRZ4hNsR
— ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2019
The incident comes a day before the start of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly session in which the Kamal Nath government is likely to table an amendment in a law to curb violence in the name of cow protection.
The state cabinet last month approved the proposal to amend the MP Cow Progeny Slaughter Prevention Act, 2004.
The move to amend the law, cleared during the previous BJP government, came after a Muslim man and woman were beaten up on suspicion of carrying beef in MP's Seoni district in May.
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PM must clarify whether he endorses Sarma's 'utterly shameful' remarks on Kharge: Priyanka
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New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday said the use of "abusive" language by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is "utterly shameful" and added Prime Minister Narendra Modi must clarify whether he endorses this "insult".
Sarma had triggered a row on Tuesday when he hit out at Kharge, saying that he was "speaking like a mad man" due to old age, after the latter put the onus on central agencies to probe the charges made against the Assam chief minister.
In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "The kind of abusive and derogatory language used by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma against the Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, is utterly shameful and unacceptable."
She said Kharge is one of the most senior leaders in the country and serves as an enlightened representative not only of the Congress party but also of the Dalits and the marginalised sections of the nation.
"By insulting him, the BJP chief minister has insulted crores of people across the country," she said.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi must clarify to the nation: does he endorse this insult directed at crores of Indians?" she said.
The Congress on Tuesday accused Sarma of insulting party chief Kharge and demanded an unconditional apology from him for his "deplorable conduct" that it alleged reflects the "anti-Dalit mindset" of the BJP.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday had said the use of "derogatory language" against party chief Mallikarjun Kharge by Sarma was an insult to the entire SC/ST community, and the silence of Prime Minister Modi on the matter "is not his helplessness, but his consent".
"If the prime minister sees an attack on the dignity of crores of Dalits in the country and does not speak up - he is not only shirking his responsibility, but is also a party to that insult," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
Gandhi said the use of "vulgar and derogatory language" by Sarma against Kharge "is entirely condemnable, shameful, and unacceptable".
"Kharge ji is a senior and popular Dalit leader of the country - his experience, stature, and prestige are unparalleled. Insulting him is not an insult to one individual alone, but also to crores of people from the SC-ST community in this country," he posted.
This, he said, just reflected the "old and premeditated mindset" of the BJP-RSS and was nothing new.
"Whether it is the insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar, belittling Dalit leaders, or personal attacks on representatives of the SC-ST community - the history of BJP and RSS bears witness that whenever a Dalit leader speaks the truth, they stoop to humiliate him," Gandhi said.
"This is their ideology, this is their true character and face," he added.
Posing a direct question to the prime minister, he asked, "Do you support Himanta Sarma's use of this language? Your silence is not helplessness, it is consent."
