Urban Mirror Correspondent
Lucknow, February 12: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today criticised the BJP for making efforts to politicise the cow issue in the run up to the general elections. The LGP said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment in Mathura that “cow is integral part of our tradition” is simply aimed at taking political advantage as the NDA government has failed to protect bovine and its haphazard way of cow protection has caused massive resentment among the villagers.
The spokesman of the party said here on Tuesday that at a time when stray animals have become a major contentious issue in rural areas in Uttar Pradesh and BJP government failing to safeguard the interest of the farmers, the ruling party effort to sentimentally politicise the issue will not yield positive result. The spokesman said there is no doubt that cow is revered animal in the Indian tradition but it has never been bone of contention as has been done by the BJP. The spokesman said “cow vigilantes” have led to communalisation of the matter with the BJP government being a mute spectator. The spokesman said the Lok Gathbandhan Party at its national executive committee meeting on January 7, 2019 at Faizabad had taken up the crisis of stray animals being faced by the people in rural areas.
The spokesman said allocation of Rs 622 crore for the bovine (stray animal) protection, which has become big menace in both rural and urban areas could not help solve the crisis. The spokesman said villagers have turned extremely hostile to the BJP government over the damages being caused to their crops by these stray animals. The spokesman said during the last more than year both rural and urban areas are facing the menace of “Stray cattle”. The problem in rural areas due to stray cattle has taken a menacing dimension however the UP government has so far paid little attention to it and the state government’s budgetary allocation works out to only Rs 40,000 per village which will not help solve the problem. The UP government’s decision to levy cess on mandi, increase toll tax and excise in the name of cow welfare cess for the construction of cow shelters is not justified as the burden would be on poor people.
