There is also a powerful political motivation behind their activism.
Many leaders of Save the Cow here are also prominent local organizers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., which is vying to
oust the socialist party that leads Uttar Pradesh, a vast northern state
with more than 200 million residents, including the 20,000 in this
village. Mr. Tomar, 24, for example, is the general secretary of the
local B.J.P. youth wing. Mr. Nagar, 33, is the state secretary of the
B.J.P. youth wing.
By
week’s end, they and many other B.J.P. leaders were blaming the
governing party in Uttar Pradesh for the attack in Bisada. The state’s
B.J.P. president, Lakshmikant Bajpayee, said in a telephone interview
that while he “most definitely” disagreed with mob violence, “the blame
for this incident lies squarely with the state’s administration and the
law and order machinery, its police.” The failure by the police to
respond quickly and forcefully to rumors of a cow’s slaughter
understandably enraged Bisada’s Hindu residents, he said.
“This
is a fight between the cow caretaker and the cow murderer in the
state,” he said. “Had the administration done their job at protecting
our cows well, these men would not have been forced to take the law in
their hands.”
Save
the Cow and B.J.P. leaders here have also roundly condemned the
decision by the police to bring murder charges. In their view, the death
of Mr. Ikhlaq was at most the unintended byproduct of a chaotic, highly
charged situation of his own making. “He slipped and his head hit the
road and he died,” Mr. Tomar said, adding: “These things happen. It’s a
mob.”
,,,
Days
after the killing, the Ikhlaq family was still too shocked and
overwhelmed to even begin picking up the broken furniture or repairing
the shattered doors. Scores of police officers protected their home on
all sides, and a steady parade of journalists made their way down the
alley to ask the same basic question: Why were the Ikhlaqs singled out?
“We
have been living in this village for decades and never picked as much
as a fight with anyone,” Mrs. Ikhlaq said quietly. Her daughter,
Shaista, 18, was reeling from having recognized several neighbors in the
mob that attacked them so relentlessly.
“If they suspected we had slaughtered a cow, why did they not file a police complaint against us?” Shaista Ikhlaq asked.
Mob Attack, Fueled by Rumors of Cow Slaughter, Has Political Overtones in India - The New York Times
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