Uttar Pradesh’s cabinet minister and senior Samajwadi Party leader, Azam Khan on Saturday demanded a complete ban on cow slaughter across India.
Speaking to reporters in his constituency, Rampur, Khan said that he was personally against cow slaughter and would support an outright ban.
He said, “I would like to exhort all those who have cows to take care of them and when they die, to cremate them with full honour.”
The state’s urban development minister said that his call for ban on cow slaughter had emanated from the fact that it hurt the religious sentiments of ‘a community.’
He, however, blamed the RSS and it’s affiliate groups such BJP for extracting political mileage by stoking up ‘unnecessary controversy’ out of cow slaughter.
The Samajwadi Party leader also claimed cow slaughter was a big-time crime during the reign of Muslim rulers.
Khan added that during the rule of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, stringent penal provisions were in place for people involved in cow slaughter.
After the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri last month over rumours of consuming cow’s meat, the cow has become a focal point in Uttar Pradesh politics, prompting statements of sorts from politicians.