BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In Mecca and Medina, cow slaughter is not allowed'
From August 1, hundreds of volunteers of the Gau Raksha Committee, which has many BJP members, will fan out in the state for the exercise, the outfit said.
The Uttar Pradesh government has moved to withdraw charges against all those accused in the 2015 mob lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Greater Noida's Dadri, a case that had sparked nationwide outrage.
The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday recommended the Centre that the cow be made the national animal, further adding that the punishment for cow slaughter should be escalated to life imprisonment.
The advisory features a ban on taking or sharing photos and videos of the sacrifice rituals on social media platforms.
Authorities in Bareilly have identified and are taking action against allegedly illegal properties linked to associates of Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) chief cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan following violent clashes in the city.
The team members said that Dalits are "soft targets" for these vigilante groups.
Two suspected beef smugglers from western Uttar Pradesh were arrested near the Delhi border after a gunfight with the Noida police on Thursday morning, officials said.
Already in the eye of a raging controversy over the 'Ghar Wapsi' programme, fiery Hindutva mascot and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yogi Adityanath has now launched a campaign for declaring cow as 'Rashtra Mata', claiming his demand "embodies the sentiment of every Indian".
A US federal government commission has flagged the alleged worsening of religious freedom in India and called for it to be designated as a "Country of Particular Concern".
The development to tweak the 2004 law, cleared during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government, has come following the thrashing of a Muslim man and a woman on suspicion of carrying beef in MP's Seoni district last month.
Cops said it was still a matter of investigation as to who called the 'cow vigilantes' when the Dalits were skinning the cow and what was the motive behind giving such false information, which led to the brutal thrashing.
The head of the cow vigilante group was arrested and the two youth were booked under the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, and taken into custody.
Two first information reports were registered by the police at Siyana police station in Bulandshahr -- one over cow slaughter and the other on the mob violence in which a village man was also killed.
What about other animals such as goats?" the bench asked.
Sachin Ahlawat, allegedly involved in the violence in Mahav village of Bulandshahr's Sayana area after rumour of alleged cow slaughter, has been appointed BJP's 'mandal president' of BB Nagar.
The Haryana government has imposed a complete ban on the sale of beef in any form and proposed to provide for 10 years rigorous imprisonment for cow slaughter, but ruled out equating it with murder.
Mohan Bhagwat's remarks came in the wake of controversy over ban on beef consumption in some states
A bill, pending for many years, banning cow slaughter in Maharashtra received the President's assent, which means beef lovers will now have to do without red meat.
The community members have decided not to lift carcasses till they were issued such identity cards to ensure their security.
He said the incident is not linked to communalism but it is a social issue concerning emotions of the Hindu community.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said tenants are also eligible to avail the 'Gruha Jyoti' scheme, under which 200 units of free power will be provided to all domestic consumers in the state from July 1.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over the resurgence of temple-mosque disputes and asserted that certain individuals, after the construction of Ayodhya's Ram Temple, seem to believe they can become "leaders of Hindus" by raking up such issues. He advocated for an inclusive society and said the world needs to be shown that India can live together in harmony.
The article also says that madrasas and the Muslim leadership in the country teach Muslims to disregard and hate Indian culture.
Later, it emerged during the initial investigation that it was buffalo meat.
Most of the opposition parties blamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliates for the cow vigilantism.
Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the intention behind the notification was not to harm any particular group.
Gandhi said that "ISKCON establishes gaushalas and earns unlimited benefits for the same from the government, in the form of huge lands."
'The day the BJP has a majority in the Rajya Sabha, the cow will be declared 'rashtra mata.'
Thanks to the increased thrust on cow protection, the enforcement of the ban on cow slaughter and the relentless crusade by cow vigilantes, the agrarian ecosystem from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh has been irrevocably altered. There's a huge spike in the number of stray cattle roaming the countryside, destroying crops. Ten cows/bulls take barely an hour to eat and destroy a bigha of crop land.
The beef ban has sparked considerable debate and confusion
They were also garlanded with flowers and were hugged by their supporters outside the district jail premises.
Playing to the Hindutva gallery, newly-appointed Bharatiya Janata Party secretary Varun Gandhi demanded a ban on cow slaughter and vowed to give UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who had jailed him for his hate speeches against Muslims, the same treatment meted out to him.
The police have registered an FIR against unidentified people for allegedly making provocative speeches at the August 13 'Sarv Hindu Samaj mahapanchayat' in Haryana's Palwal, officials said on Wednesday.
He was felling a tree to block a road. When the inspector stopped him from doing so, he attacked him.
Justifying the ban on cow slaughter, the Union minister of state for minority affairs said on Thursday, "Those who cannot survive without eating beef should go to Pakistan."
The family of Mohammed Akhlaq, who was lynched by a mob in Dadri last year for alleged cow slaughter, on Tuesday said it would move the Allahabad high court against a recent court order directing a police case be filed against them for storing and consuming beef.
Akhlaq was killed by a mob on September 29 last year on the suspicion that his family stored and consumed beef at their home.
An alleged cow smuggler was shot dead and his accomplice injured in an encounter with Haryana police near Thanesar town in Kurukshetra in the wee hours on Sunday, police said.
