Maharashtra govt to give ID cards to cow protection volunteers: Report

As many as 2,388 applications have been received, with most applicants from Hindutva outfits, The Indian Express reported

The Maharashtra government's Department of Animal Husbandry has asked people to volunteer to track and check animal slaughter, and will be provide ID cards to chosen volunteers, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

The notice said that the move is aimed at keeping tabs on violations of the beef ban imposed last year. It also stated that people volunteering for the work must not have any affiliation to any political or religious group. As many as 2,388 applications have been received out of which 2,371 are awaiting the approval from a High Court appointed Committee to Monitor Animal Welfare Laws. 

The move comes only days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the issue of vigilantes committing atrocities against the suspects who slaughter cows, saying the actions of these vigilantes were despicable and must be stopped. 

Interestingly, at least 60% of the applicants have identified themselves as 'gau rakshaks' and are associated to active cow protection groups. Many applicants, the report said, are members of Hindutva outfits such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena, Hindu Sena, Shiv Sena, Durgavahini, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. 

The distribution of ID cards, which will happen once the volunteers are finally chosen, runs counter to PM Modi’s comments at a recent MyGov Initiative. At that event, he said that the cow vigilante business made him “angry” and that such vigilantes were nothing more than anti-social elements in the garb of cow protectors. 

But it's not just the BJP-led Maharashtra government that is looking to co-opt citizens into such volunteerism. The Haryana government, also led by the BJP, is licensing a cow protection group to stop the cruelty against the sacred animal for Hindus, The New York Times reported.

People from minority religions and Dalits, who are outside the traditional Hindu caste system, have been victims of atrocities of cow vigilantes. A recent incident in Una, Gujarat, where four Dalits were stripped and thrashed for skinning a dead cow, has fanned a statewide Dalit protest. Earlier a lynch mob in Dadri killed a Muslim farmer Akhlaq on suspicion of keeping beef meat in his refrigerator.