Before the gaurakhshaks or cow vigilantes cruelly lynch or hang another human being to prevent cow slaughter, I would like to ask them to pause and ponder. Pause to ask themselves one question – how do they and their Hindu brethren look after their gau mata for whom they resort to manslaughter without compunction? Ponder over the state they are kept in by those who revere them.
They are abandoned on roads making the area accident prone? Cars have toppled over, people have been gored and their ‘beloved’ cows have ended up with raw bleeding wounds. I once saw a cow with a broken tail hanging from her body by a thin strip of skin for a car has run over it!
Others give them left over chappatis, smug in the belief that they have done their religious deed of the day. Expecting chapppatis from every open car window, these dumb creatures shove their noses inside frightening the daylights out of those not so religiously inclined.
One visualizes fat cows in green pastures contentedly munching grass to their heart’s content and rewarding their owners with pails of rich creamy milk but no, here they are seen in garbage dumps rummaging in the dirt along with dogs, cat and rats, eating vegetable and fruit peels along with plastic covers! Don’t these gau rakshaks understand that they are bestowing upon the creatures they kill to protect, an end far worse than slaughter? With the non biodegradable plastic blocking their stomach and intestines they will die a tortured, lingering death. Why don’t they save them from such horrifying, slow slaughter?
As for the brass bell-ringing cart from gaushalas (cow shelters) that goes from house to house, collecting food for the poor creatures put to pasture, the less said the better. One refused my offerings of vegetable and fruit peels and the ends of saag and methi, which was what they actually eat! I wonder why?
Where are the owners of the cows left to dangerously loiter on roads? They come only drag them home at appropriate intervals to extract the ambrosia from their udders and abandon them till it is time to milk them again. One poor bewildered creature delivered twins in the open, away from any comforting presence. The second twin was unable to stand up and though a crowd had collected by that time, no one know what to do, whom to contact.
Such then is the pitiful state of the worshipped, giver of all things sacred and life-giving to humanity. Ban cow slaughter by all means but please, protect those you save from a life far worse than death; otherwise you will be defeating the very purpose of your vigilance. This is not how Hindus should show their reverence for those that nourish and nurture them and theirs. Give them a good life and they will repay you a thousand times over with their limitless bounties. Take care of these beautiful placid creatures with lovely khol-lined eyes and KEEP THEM AWAY FROM PLASTIC.