RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Sanskrit Board Chairman Swami Parmanand came out in strong support of gau-rakshaks (cow vigilantes) and said the people who killed “cow slaughterers” should be honoured. A video of his speech at a Hindu Sammelan (congregation) at north Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur was circulated in social media on Monday.
Swami Parmanand also objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemning the self-styled gau rakshaks recently in Ahmedabad. On June 30 PM Modi had said that the killings in the name of cow protection is "unacceptable and Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) would not have approved of it".
"Modi ji is a protector of the Hindu religion but on what condition can he claim that gau-rakshaks are criminals. All cow protectors are not goons or anti-social", he retorted.
In the video he is heard saying, "Veda mein likha hai ki gau hatyare ko sheeshay ki goli se maaro. Kshama mat Karo. Aur jisne us gau hatyare ko mara, uska swagat karo Chhattisgarh mein bula ke (It is written in the Vedas that those who kill cows should be killed. Don't forgive (spare the cow killers). Those who killed the cow killer should be honoured).”
Swami Parmanand, in conversation with the New Indian Express admitted to saying to honour those who killed the cow killers and he justified such killings, “What I had said is in our Vedas which clearly say gau hatyare ko sheeshay ki goli se maro. The act is unpardonable".
To a query on whether anyone has a right to take the law into their hands, Swami Parmanand said that the government should make laws to hang those who kill cows. "If the government doesn't act then the samaj (society) can take the
correct way to punish those who kill the cows", he told the New Indian Express.
Opposition Congress expressed shock over his remark. “Such people should best be ignored as creating an issue out of it offers them high importance and consequently disturbs social harmony. But I would like to know from him in
which Veda it’s written that gau hatyare ko sheeshay ki goli se maro,” said opposition leader T S Singhdeo, who hails from Ambikapur.