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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known to be a man in a hurry. Procrastination, one learns from his supporters, ranks low in his working-day vocabulary. But when it comes to issues with a saffron underpinning – like gau rakshaks running amok – the CEO of our land, known to be never at a loss for words, turns tongue-tied. And when he doth finally speak, even his spokespersons have to resort to apologetic phrases to sugar-coat his delayed response.
There seems to be a Nero hiding behind the Namo of the active voice and surgical strikes. Last week, when the PM finally broke his silence, he chose the inauguration of the Sabarmati Centenary celebrations to make a politically correct statement. “We are the land of non-violence. We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi. No one spoke about protecting cows more than Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Yes. It should be done. But, killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve.” It was a statement Gandhi would have endorsed but he would have wished the Prime Minister spoke oftener, more forcefully and enforced the rule of law against the perpetrators of lynching and flogging.
As Prime Minister, Modi has spoken only twice against the gau rakshaks. On both occasions his speech lacked conviction and failed to act as a deterrent. The saffron army that wages a battle against non-Hindu citizens, Dalits and all those who look “suspicious” have not called off the war in the name of the holy cow. Statistics collated by Indiaspend.com paint a dismal picture. Since 2010 there have been 62 reported incidents of bovine-related violence in the country of which 97 per cent took place since May 2014 after the Modi government took over. Of 28 deaths so far, 24 were of Muslims. What’s worse, 20 “cow-terror” attacks have taken place in 2017 alone, which could be the most dismal year ever in this regard. Modi has to clearly do a lot more than make occasional utterances to halt the anarchy.
Associate Editor
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