New Delhi: According to reports, BJP leader Ranjit Bahadur Srivastava this week said that Muslims owning cows is “love jihad” and that cows should be rescued from Muslims homes.
“Cows in the houses of Muslims should be taken back. When we consider girls from our homes going to their homes as ‘love jihad’, shouldn’t we consider ‘gau mata‘ going to their homes ‘love jihad’ too? This is love jihad. Cows should be taken back from them at any cost,” the leader from Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki told ANI.
Cows, he said, should be cremated in accordance with Hindu rituals. “Cows are like our mother. We should conduct the final rites of our cows as we do to our mothers. We will create a cremation site for cows,” he said.
The leader from Barabanki said that a separate electric crematorium should be built for cows.
As ANI reported, the BJP leader added that goats are more suited for Muslims.
“Goat is their mother. They should opt for goat rearing. Why do they rear cows? This is love jihad. I am against it,” he said.
Srivastava also reportedly advocated that Muslims should convert to Hinduism religion to end the enmity between two religions.
“Muslims when they came to India most Hindus converted into Islam. Looking at this, they are like our brothers and they should come back to their old religion,” he said.
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Srivastava’s comments are the most recent in a series of statements made by BJP leaders about cows in India.
Last week, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh claimed that cows are the only animal in the world that inhale and exhale oxygen.
He further said that massaging a cow can also cure one’s breathing problems and if one stays in close proximity with the animal it can help get rid of tuberculosis.
A few months ago, before the general election, BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Thakur had said that drinking “gau mutra” (cow urine) helped her to get rid of breast cancer.