NEW DELHI: From the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha to Bollywood’s leading men, the tribe of ‘big brothers’ for stray dogs is growing. The backlash came from all quarters in both bark and bite.
After a day of high drama, marching with INDIA bloc colleagues from Parliament to the Election Commission of India’s office over revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi took a moment to post on social media, aimed, perhaps, at a different constituency of voters.
Dog parents and animal lovers have not been at rest since the Supreme Court’s directive on Monday to remove all stray dogs from Delhi-NCR and place them in shelters within eight weeks. Rahul described the directive as a “step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy”. He added that “shelters, sterilisation, vaccination & community care can keep streets safe” without the need for “blanket removals”.
Rahul’s dog cred has never been in doubt. Former Congress leader and present Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that he had to vie for Rahul’s attention with the latter’s dog on an occasion when he had gone to meet him over a political matter.
For Bollywood actor John Abraham, it is personal. He is the dad of Bailey, a mixed breed, adopted as a stray. Calling the action ‘illegal, impractical, and inhumane’, he wrote to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, requesting a review of the sweeping order.
For animal lovers, there is no north-south divide. From actor Varun Dhawan to popular playback singer in the south, Chinmayi Sripaada, to Indian comic actors such as Vir Das, all have also come out strongly against the relocation order, using their social media accounts to call it a “death sentence for all dogs”.