Raman Singh: Those who kill cows will be hanged'

Bhopal/ Imphal/New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat made cow slaughter punishable with life imprisonment, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh went a step ahead and announced that those who kill cow will be “hanged.”

“Pichhle 15 saal se ek bhi ghatna aisi nahi hui...jo maarega usko latka denge (Not a single incident of cow slaughter has taken place in the last 15 years... anyone who does so will be hanged),” Mr Singh said in Jagdalpur on Saturday. He was responding to queries by journalists if his government would, like Yogi Adityanath’s in UP, take a tough stand on cow slaughter.

A Chhattisgarh government spokesperson, however, clarified to this newspaper that the CM never meant capital punishment. “In administrative parlance, ‘latka denge’ means ‘will take (offenders) to task’,” the spokesperson said.

Slaughter of cow, buffalo, bull, bullock, calf, and possession of their meat is ba-nned in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh.  Transport, export to other states for slaughter is also banned. These offences attract same punishment of seven years’ jail and fine up to Rs 50,000.

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi accused the BJP of “hypocrisy” over beef ban after the saffron party said it would not be extended to the northeastern states.

“In Uttar Pradesh, cow is mummy, and in the northeastern states it’s yummy. This shows BJP’s hypocrisy. While they are talking about beef ban in Uttar Pradesh, they have said there would be no such thing in the Northeast.

“Assembly elections are going to be held in three states in the Northeast. Beef is easily available in (BJP-ruled) Goa. You tell me what is this,” he told a TV news channel.

Reacting to the Hyderabad MP’s remarks, BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy said,” What’s this mummy, yummy thing? Owaisi says he has faith in the Indian Constitution. Article 48 of the Constitution says cow slaughter will be prohibited. Let him say he has no faith in some articles of the Constitution, then we will see,” he said.

Manipur CM N. Biren Singh too slammed Mr Owaisi for his comments. “Such wild allegations should not be made. We worship cows, we preserve them. He (Owaisi) cannot make such observations about the entire northeast,” he said in Manipur capital Imphal.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi supporter Mr Owaisi’s remarks. “We have heard what Raman Singh has said....What’s happening in UP. The hypocrisy behind cow protection is obvious. Saying that there will be no beef ban in northeastern states is political opportunism,” she said.