The Bharatiya Janata Party will ban cow slaughter inBihar if it comes to power, senior party leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Monday.
"Agar Bihar mein National Democratic Alliance ki sarkar bani to gau-hatya per pertibandh lagaya jaiga (We will ban cow slaughter in Bihar if the BJP comes to power),” he wrote on his Twitter page.
Modi, who is one of the main faces in race for the chief ministerial candidate, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has saved lives of thousands of cows by stopping their smuggling near the border.
He added that cow slaughter has been under prohibition in Bihar since 1955, but it has not been implemented effectively till date. “Successive state governments have failed to check and control cow slaughter in Bihar,” he said.
His stand was supported by Union Minister Giriraj Singh.
The former deputy chief minister’s statement is being seen as a part of the strategy of the BJP to play the communal card to polarise voters, following Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's remarks on beef last Saturday.
Lalu said that it was wrong to kill anyone for eating beef and created a controversy by saying that some Hindus also ate beef. Lalu was reacting on killing of a man for allegedly eating beef in Dadri (Uttar Pradesh).
The RJD chief had said that some of those living in foreign countries or those visiting from abroad also eat beef. Following that, several BJP leaders, including Union ministers criticised Lalu and asked him to take back his words.
Image: A streetside vendor, sits on the pavement next to his cow outside a temple. Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters
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