With his Government and the BJP facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday broke his silence and utilised his first direct engagement with citizens to hit out at the self-styled “gau rakshaks”, saying most of them were “anti-social elements hiding behind the mask of cow protection”.
Maintaining that it “angers” him that “people are running shops in the name of cow protection”, he asked State Governments to prepare dossiers on such elements who indulge in anti-social acts at night and wear the garb of “gau rakshaks” during the day. “Eighty per cent of them will be found to be involved in anti-social activities,” Modi said in his first direct response to cow vigilantism in States like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Modi’s stern reactions came towards the end of his Town Hall-style programme — organised by the Ministry of Electronic & IT to commemorate two years of its myGov Initiative — while replying to the last question on social service and his experience. Modi also launched an App for the Prime Minister’s Office, known as PMO App, for better connectivity with the common man.
Noting that more cows die from consuming plastic than from slaughter, he said those who want to serve the animal should rather work towards stopping cows from eating plastic. “This will be a bigger service,” he stressed.
Recalling his own work for the service of cows, he said at one health camp organised by him for the animal, at least two buckets full of plastic were removed from the stomach of one of them.
“I want to tell these people, that they should prevent cows from eating plastic. Do it if you want to serve cows. Remove plastic from the garbage to prevent cows from eating it,” Modi said.
The programme saw the participation of around 2,000 people associated with the MyGov initiative providing governance ideas for the last two years. Ten people from different parts of the country were selected for the programme convened at Indira Gandhi Stadium to ask questions to the Prime Minister through a video conference.
The questions ranged from delivery of governance to economy, health, agriculture, rural development to handlooms and foreign affairs.
Answering the query on delivery of governance, Modi outlined that the spirit of democracy would not develop if democracy was limited to voting and choosing a Government every five years. In remarks laced with sarcasm, he said the Prime Minister’s answers were sought for every incident, be it at the village-level, district-level or State-level.
He said that accountability of those directly responsible for governance has to be fixed at every level and that his Government was now looking for people’s participation in every activity of governance.
On the foreign policy front he said, “India first” is the central point of his Government’s diplomatic engagements.
“It is about protecting India’s strategic interest, it is to ensure that India marches forward in achieving economic prosperity by leaps and bounds and reaches the position which it is destined to reach,” Modi said and added that there was no need to use words like aggressive, progressive and proactive in talking about the country’s foreign policy which the questioner had used.
The Prime Minister said times have changed and the world has become interdependent and no country can afford to live in a particular group. “The time of grouping has come to an end. Every country is linked to some other country,” he said, adding walking together in most cases has become the norm.
Showering praise on the Indian diaspora, he said they can play an important role in strengthening India’s ties with foreign countries and “we should utilise their strength.”
While Modi asserted that if “we maintain an eight per cent growth rate for the next 30 years we will be at the top”, he also espoused the cause of handlooms saying khadi is both for the nation and for fashion. He urged people to spend at least five per cent on buying handloom textiles to help the poor weavers.
Modi also stressed for better health facilities, private-public participation, preventive health and changing the health insurance concept to health assurance, for which the Government is soon coming out with a project.
The programme with a series of debates started in the morning and several Ministers including Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad attended.
