Can consider law to ban cow slaughter: Cong

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
In the atmosphere of polarization triggered by the recent lynch death of Mohd Ikhlaque, a 50-year-old ironsmith accused of consuming beef in Dadri’s Bishada, the Congress today backed a law on cow slaughter ban saying it would consider a national legislation in this regard should the Centre moot one.
“If there is a national legislation on cow slaughter ban, we shall consider it. I am a Hindu. I don’t eat beef, but I also don’t impose my views on others,” senior Congress leader and party general secretary Digvijay Singh said today in response to questions around the party’s position on the subject.
Officially though the Congress remained silent on the matter of national legislation prohibiting cow slaughter with party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari saying that beginning 1955 when the then Congress government in Bihar banned cow slaughter by law, Congress dispensations in many other states followed suit.
With Sushil Modi publicly promising a ban on cow slaughter in Bihar should the BJP win the state elections, Tewari said, “I want to ask Modiji how he can enact a law that’s already there.”
Congress’ positioning on the issue came after Union MoS Agriculture Sajjeev Balyan today asked the party if it would ban cow slaughter in Congress-ruled Kerala. Post the Dadri incident where a mob killed Ikhlaque and injured his 22-year-old son, Danish, following suspicion that they consumed beef, BJP leaders have been seeking effective cow slaughter bans.
 
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