'Gau Raksha' is important, but so is 'Manav Raksha', says Athawale

Condemning the Una incident where a Dalit family was flogged allegedly by Gau Rakshaks for skinning a cow carcass, newly inducted Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale on Saturday said the protection of cows should not be at the expense of human lives.

Speaking to ANI, Athawale said, "My statement was not for the government, but for those who are for Gau Raksha. I only want to urge them that as per Hinduism there is a holy place of cow and we respect that, but protection of cows should not be at the expense of human lives. If someone kills a cow, neglecting the laws, it should be opposed, but no human being should be killed."

"'Gau raksha' should be done but 'Manav raksha' is also important. There should not be any kind of struggle between Dalits and Hindus as well as Muslims and Hindus. We all should try to strengthen the society. We all should see that incidents like that of Una don't take place in future," he added.

A policeman was killed in mob violence and a Dalit committed suicide on July 19 as protests against last week's thrashing of four youth in Una town snowballed across the Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

The Dalit, who died during the day, was among the five persons from the community who tried to take their own lives in separate incidents in Gujarat.