Rajnath backs national ban on cow slaughter

Indore, Mar 30: The NDA government will try its “level best” to bring in a countrywide ban on slaughter of cows by evolving a consensus, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.

“Cow slaughter cannot be accepted in this country. We will make all-out efforts to ban it and will also try hard for a consensus,” he told a gathering of spiritual leaders of Shwetambar Jains, a prominent sect of Jainism.

Referring to the cow slaughter ban in the BJP-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader said nobody should doubt the government’s commitment in this regard.

“The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh enacted a tough law; so has the Maharashtra government. We didn’t waste any time in sending the Bill passed by Maharashtra government to the President for his assent,” he said referring to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, which also extends the ban to slaughter of bulls and bullocks.

On the occasion, Acharya Shivmuni wanted the Centre to bring in legislation in the current Budget Session of Parliament for banning slaughter of buffaloes also.

To this, Mr. Singh said the government needed to have an absolute majority in both Houses of Parliament to enforce a complete ban. “You must be reading in the newspapers how the government has to struggle to get various bills passed in Parliament.” The BJP lacks the numbers in the Rajya Sabha.

Mr. Singh recalled that when he was Agriculture Minister in 2003, his Ministry had prepared a Bill for a total ban on slaughter of cows. “But the moment I rose to present it in Parliament, there was an uproar. That is why we couldn’t get the Bill passed,” he said.

‘Gem of Indian culture’

Describing Jainism as the “gem” of Indian culture, he said: “The entire world is affected by the scourge of terrorism, origin of which lies in the mentality of violence. And this mentality can be fought with the teachings of Jainism.”