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‘Unconstitutional’: Ex-spokesperson of BJP ally condemns cow vigilante attacks in party-ruled Haryana
JD(U)'s KC Tyagi said that ‘no one should be allowed to take law into their own hands.’
Senior Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi, who recently resigned as spokesperson of the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar-led party, on Wednesday slammed ‘cow vigilantes,’ describing their actions as ‘unconstitutional.’
Tyagi's statement came amid outrage over two incidents of cow-related ‘vigilantism’ in Haryana, where JD(U) ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power and faces an election in October.
“What they (cow vigilantes) are doing is unconstitutional. It is very much against our Constitution, which gives us the right to liberty. If anyone has an issue, then they should complain in police stations. How can an outfit act like a police force?” he said during an interaction with PTI.
Stating that no one should be allowed to take law into their own hands, Tyagi also recalled prime minister Narendra Modi taking a similar line years ago.
In Haryana's Faridabad, a 19-year-old student was fatally shot by cow vigilantes on the Agra-Delhi highway on August 23. It later emerged that the attackers opened fire at the victim's car mistaking it to be occupied by cattle smugglers about whom they had been tipped off.
Five suspects are in police custody for allegedly chasing the car and opening fire at it, resulting in the boy's death.
On August 28, a Muslim worker from West Bengal was lynched in Charkhi Dadri on suspicion of beef consumption. Seven people, including two minor boys, were apprehended by police.
The state's ruling BJP, already facing anti-incumbency having been in power here since 2014, has come under attack from the opposition, with Congress' Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accusing the saffron party of ‘climbing the ladder of power by using hatred as a political weapon.’
Muslim body Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind has called the attacks an attempt to create ‘communal mobilisation’ ahead of the election in Haryana.
