Mumbai: India’s Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale on July 14 said “everybody has a right to eat beef” and promised action against those attacking people in the name of cow protection.
“Even Prime Minster Narendra Modi has expressed concern over this and warned that such incidents would not be tolerated. Yet, such incidents have not stopped,” Athawale said, adding that such incidents will not be tolerated anymore and the self-styled cow vigilantes will be dealt with sternly.
The minister, who addressed media in Mumbai, western India, said in recent months, many people have been beaten, some of whom lost their lives, for suspected possession or transport of beef or meat of other animals, reports twocircles.net.
“Everybody in the country has a right to eat beef. The gau rakshaks have the right to lodge a police complain. However, they don’t have the authority to take the law in their hands and beat or lynch anybody,” said Athavale, who is the president of the Republican Party of India-A, a federal coalition partner.
The minister’s statement came days after Maharashtra was rocked by beef-related incidents — two in Pune and one in Nagpur — in which four persons were arrested and a former BJP activist brutally assaulted on suspicions of transporting beef by a mob of cow vigilantes respectively.