VIJAYAWADA: Actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan left none in doubt on Thursday on whether he would continue to give the BJP company in the State. In what could be termed a ‘surgical strike’ on the saffron party, Pawan took some time off his busy shooting schedule to post a series of tweets on issues that had given a headache to the Modi Sarkar - cow slaughter, Rohit Vemula suicide, special category status to State, patriotism and demonetisation.
Of late, with his barbs at the saffron party, which the actor-turned-politician held in high esteem on the eve of general elections in 2014, he began distancing himself from it, mainly on the issue of denial of special category status to AP. Pawan, in fact, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the general elections in 2014 and campaigned for the BJP-TDP combine.
After remaining silent for a long time, he appeared back on the centre stage of State politics recently, first advising Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu against taking lands under the land pooling scheme in Amaravati and then, confronting him for compromising on the special category status.
After addressing three public meetings - two in Rayalaseema and one in Coastal Andhra - where he came down heavily on the BJP, Pawan on Thursday tweeted that if the party was really serious about cow protection, it could have barred its workers, MPs and MLAs from wearing leather footwear and belts and unveiled a plan asking every worker to adopt a cow. “These measures would have have given the required seriousness to the campaign against cow slaughter,” the actor opined.
He further described the call for ban on cow slaughter and beef as a political device formulated to divide people and scare communities who consume beef and flare up communal passions among those who respect and worship the cow. “If the BJP means what it says, it would have implemented beef ban in Goa where it is in power,” he said.