Lucknow, June 1 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came down heavily on the Islamic clerics on Monday, over their recent demands seeking ‘national animal’ status for cows.

“Cow is our mother. We share the same bond with her as we have with our mothers. There is nothing to prove here, and this relation needs no name or status,” CM Yogi asserted before a gathering of people in Bijnor.

The Chief Minister made these remarks during the distribution of land ownership rights certificates to over 1,600 families, displaced from Pakistan and former soldiers, in a program organized in Bijnor district.

“Gomata is the self-proclaimed Rashtramata; there’s no need to declare her to anyone,” CM Yogi said.

The Chief Minister’s unequivocal assertion came in the wake of recent calls made during Bakrid by some noted Muslim clerics to declare the cow a national animal. The reason they cited was that it would discourage cattle slaughter and raise the sanctity of the milk-yielding animal.

Noted Islamic clerics, including those from Ajmer Dargah Sharif, Kolkata’s Nakhoda Masjid, and Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, urged the Muslim community to refrain from cow sacrifice during Eid-ul-Azha.

Ajmer’s Syed Sarwar Chishti called upon PM Modi to convene Parliament to declare the cow a national animal, ban slaughter, and beef exports.

All India Jamiatul Quresh demanded a ban on beef-export companies and national animal status for cows. The outfit’s working president, Mohammad Javed Qureshi, claimed that beef export companies were minting money through illegal cattle slaughter and also claimed that such restrictions have an adverse impact on livestock farmers.

Clerics, however, also raised concerns over increasing cow vigilantism and alleged harassment of cattle traders at the hands of self-styled cow vigilante groups, taking the law into their own hands.

The UP CM, calling out the ‘double standards’ of clerics, said that the cows have remained a revered figure in India for ages, and making demands for national animal status shows their duplicity and mindset.

He added that those who want to label cows as animals, themselves harbour a ‘devilish mindset’.

The Chief Minister also touched upon the recent murder in Ghaziabad and stated that such stabbing incidents committed under the guise of friendship are reprehensible and unacceptable, and they will not be tolerated in the state.

Notably, on the day of Bakrid, a youth named Surya Pratap Chouhan was stabbed to death in the Khoda area of Ghaziabad by some of his friends, triggering widespread outrage from the victim’s family as well as the neighbourhood. The key accused named Asad was subsequently gunned down by UP police in an encounter, as the former fired gunshots at the cops.

–IANS

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