Ex-CM Bommai condemns Karnataka Animal Husbandry Minister's statement on cow slaughter
Bengaluru, Jun 4: Former Karnataka chief minister and BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday took strong exception to Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh's statement that if buffaloes can be slaughtered, then why not cows.
Condemning the statement, Bommai said in a series of tweets that Indians are emotionally connected with cows and worship them as a mother.
"Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh's statement is shocking. We condemn his statement. We Indians have an emotional connection with the cow and worship them as mother," Bommai said.
Wondering whom Venkatesh wanted to please, the BJP leader sought to know whether the statement was made to change his portfolio or to please the Congress high command.
"Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi was the first to advocate the ban on cow slaughter. A ban on cow slaughter advocated by Venerable Mahatma Gandhi was enacted in several states in the 1960s," the BJP leader said.
ALSO READ: Your communal game won't work now, will land you in jail: MB Patil warns Chakravarthy Sulibele
According to Bommai, the minister's statement would give rise to "large-scale smuggling of cows and mass slaughtering factories in the state".
"The law was introduced during our government to prevent illegal slaughterhouses. No new Act has been brought in Karnataka. We have enforced the existing law," the former chief minister clarified.
Asking Venkatesh to think twice before making such a statement, Bommai appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to give appropriate advice to his ministerial colleague in this regard.
Seeking a relook at the anti-cow slaughter law, Venkatesh on Saturday questioned why there was an exception for cows when buffaloes can be slaughtered.
The minister said the government will discuss and take a decision in this regard.
"We have not decided yet. The previous BJP government had brought in a bill, in that they have allowed slaughter of buffaloes and male buffaloes, but have said cow slaughter should not be done. We will discuss it and decide," Venkatesh said while speaking to reporters.
Responding to a question on the difficulty faced by farmers in managing aged cows, the minister shared his own example where he had to get an earthmover to bury his dead cow.
Along with Bommai, several BJP leaders condemned the minister's statement including Mysuru MP Pratap Simha.
The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act that was brought into force by the BJP government in 2021 has imposed a blanket ban on the slaughter of cattle in the state.
The only slaughter allowed is of terminally-ill cattle and buffaloes aged above 13 years. Congress, then in opposition, had opposed this legislation.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in 'Hands Off!' rallies
_vb_98.jpeg)
Washington (AP): Crowds of people angry about the way President Donald Trump is running the country marched and rallied in scores of American cities Saturday in the biggest day of demonstrations yet by an opposition movement trying to regain its momentum after the shock of the Republican's first weeks in office.
So-called Hands Off! demonstrations were organised for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organisations, labour unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests.
Thousands of protesters in cities dotting the nation from Midtown Manhattan to Anchorage, Alaska, including at multiple state capitols, assailed Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's actions on government downsizing, the economy, immigration and human rights.
On the West Coast, in the shadow of Seattle's iconic Space Needle, protesters held signs with slogans like “Fight the oligarchy.” Protesters chanted as they took to the streets in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles, where they marched from Pershing Square to City Hall.
Demonstrators voiced anger over the administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who runs Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in the downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump's position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats' stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, criticized the administration's treatment of the LBGTQ+ community at the rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where Democratic members of Congress also took the stage.
“The attacks that we're seeing, they're not just political. They are personal, y'all,” Robinson said. “They're trying to ban our books, they're slashing HIV prevention funding, they're criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives.”
“We don't want this America, y'all,” Robinson added. “We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”
In Boston, demonstrators brandished signs such as “Hands off our democracy” and “Hands off our Social Security.”
Mayor Michelle Wu said she does not want her children and others' to live in a world in which threats and intimidation are government tactics and values like diversity and equality are under attack.
“I refuse to accept that they could grow up in a world where immigrants like their grandma and grandpa are automatically presumed to be criminals,” Wu said.
Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, was one of hundreds who rallied at the Statehouse in Columbus. He said he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.
“He's tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It's just an administration of grievances.”
Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump's golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club's Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.
“They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security,” said Archer Moran of Port St. Lucie, Florida.
“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it's amazing how soon these protests are happening since he's taken office.”
The president golfed in Florida Saturday and planned to do so again Sunday, the White House said.
Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump and Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But before Saturday the opposition movement had yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women's March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington after Trump's first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women's reproductive rights.
“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what's going on today, what's happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. "It's disgusting, and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things — it is not the way to do it. They're not listening to the people."
Among thousands marching through downtown San Jose, California, were Deborah and Douglas Doherty.
Deborah, a graphic designer, is a veteran of the 2017 Women's March and was nervous that fewer people have turned out against Trump this time. “All the cities need to show up,” she said. “Now people are kind of numb to it, which is itself frightening.”
 (1)_vb_94.jpeg)
