Apparently miffed over the campaign of the newly elected BJP government against the illegal slaughter houses and cattle smuggling, the senior Samajwadi party leader and former minister Azam Khan has demanded all India ban on cow slaughter and also urged the muslims to stop eating beef.
Azam Khan in a statement in Rampur on Monday said ``why cow slaughter is still legal in states like Kerala and West Bengal. Cow slaughter should be banned across the country. Why is it so that it is legal in states like Kerala and West Bengal but not in other states,” .
Azam Khan’s response came after a large section of meat sellers downed their shutters across the state following the crackdown against the operation of unlicensed meat shops and illegal slaughter houses. Azam Khan, however, questioned government’s logic behind the ban by saying, “So it means that everything is fine if animals are butchered in legal slaughterhouses and becomes illegal if the animal is slaughtered in an unlicensed place. This legal, illegal business should end and all slaughterhouses should be shut. No animal should be slaughtered.
He added that many people of other religions don’t eat other animals like chicken and goat due to sensitive issues. Using it as an example, he added that if the Muslims stop eating beef it shouldn’t harm anyone as it is not written anywhere. “The muslim religious leaders should appeal to the people that they should stop eating meat,” he added.
Azam Khan who is a senior member of the Samajwadi Party didn’t attend the party’s national executive meeting which was presided over by Akhilesh Yadav here on March 25. Azam Khan is the National General Secretary of the party while Mulayam Singh Yadav who is the patriarch of the party also skipped the meeting leading to speculation in the party about the tension within the first family of the Samajwadi Party. Mulayam Singh Yadav had also criticised Samajwadi Party’s alliance with Congress after his dispute with son Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the UP assembly elections.