The All India All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen Party president Asaduddin Owaisi has charged the BJP for its 'hypocrisy' on beef and ban on cow slaughter.
Last week top BJP leaders from the Christian-predominant states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland issued statements claiming that a ban on cow slaughter is not on the party’s agenda in the three north-eastern states where Assembly polls are due next year.
During the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government’s rule at the Centre, BJP leaders from Nagaland had threatened to walk out of the party if any attempt was made to ban cow slaughter in the state.
PTI has reported Owaisi as saying that the BJP's hypocrisy is that in Uttar Pradesh cow is revered as a mother but in the Northeast the animal's meat is part of the normal diet.
In the past week, following in the footsteps of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP-ruled states in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have targeted slaughter houses and even retail shops selling mutton and chicken
On Friday, the Gujarat government amended an existing law, making cow slaughter punishable with a life sentence. In Maharashtra, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have demanded that the BJP-led government replicates the new Gujarat law in the state.