If the comments made by Ranjit Shrivastava, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh are anything to go by, then cows do follow a religion; they are, to be precise, Hindus!
Adding further, Ranjit Shrivastava said that since cow is the mother of Hindus, the last rites of a cow after she dies should be performed according to the rituals as followed during the last rites of a human mother.
“Gai hamari mata hai, hum apni maa ka sanskar jis tarah karte hain, kafan dekar, shamshan ghat le ja kar unko mukhagni dekar jis tarah se daah-sanskar kiya jata hai usi tarah se gaumata ka daah-sanskar hona chahiye (Cow is our mother and her last rites should be performed just like we perform the last rites of our mothers by wrapping her in a shroud and lighting the pyre at the cremation ground),” ANI quoted Ranjit Shrivastava as saying.
Shrivastava made these comments while addressing a municipality board meeting, say the reports.
He further made a plea to the state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath when he said, “I request Yogi ji to look into this matter. I am former chairperson of the municipality and husband of present chairperson of the municipality, hence I will try my best to get this proposal passed in the meeting so that a crematorium for cows could be built in Barabanki.”
Ranjit Shrivastava also mentioned love jihad with reference to cows.
“Cows at the houses of Muslims should be taken back. When we consider girls from our homes going to their homes ‘love jihad’, shouldn’t we consider ‘gau mata’ going to their homes ‘love jihad’ too? Cows should be taken back from them at any cost,” said Shrivastava.