Amidst the row over mob lynching of a 50-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh allegedly over rumours that he had eaten beef, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has now challenged the Narendra Modi-led government to ban beef exports and reminded him of his stand against “pink revolution.”
“Some forces want to vitiate the atmosphere of secularism. They want to rake up such issues. These forces talked about pink revolution. You are in government now, so ban beef exports. You should build support for banning their export,” Mr Yadav said at an event in Lucknow in an apparent reference to PM Modi, who had in the run-up to last Lok Sabha elections attacked the then UPA government over meat exports, saying it was encouraging “pink revolution”.
Minister of State, Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said on Twitter that enacting law on cow slaughter was not under the Centre. “Preservation of cattle or enacting law on cow slaughter does not fall under the purview of the Central Government,” she wrote in a series on tweets.
50-year-old Mohammad Ikhlaq was beaten to death by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri on the outskirts of Delhi on Monday night. He and his 22-year-old son were dragged from their house by around 100 villagers and beaten with bricks. Ikhlaq’s son is critical.
Half an hour before the attack, an announcement was allegedly made at a temple nearby that a calf had been slaughtered and its carcass had been found near a transformer.
No names were taken in the announcement, but there are only two Muslim families in the area and the other family was out.
Killing cows is illegal in Uttar Pradesh.
The police are investigating who started the rumours in a part of western Uttar Pradesh that is prone to trouble at the slightest provocation.
(With inputs from Agencies)