Some Sangh Parivar activists indulging in illegal cattle trade: Former BJP MLA

Mangaluru, Aug 20: A former leader of Bharatiya Janata Party has revealed that some Sangh Parivar activists in coastal Karnataka were hand-in-glove in the illegal cattle trade.

In his response to the murder of a BJP worker by a group of cow vigilantes in Udupi, K Rama Bhat Urimajalu, former two-time MLA from Puttur, sarcastically said that one should practice in life what the preach to others.

Mr Bhat, who had won on the Janata Party ticket in 1978 and on the Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in 1983, had played a major role in building the saffron party in the coastal district. He was the first in the Sangh Parivar to become an MLA in Karnataka, even before the national party BJP was formed.

The octogenarian leader, who distanced from BJP and floated the Swabhimani Vedike nearly a decade ago in protest against the “dirty politics” of the saffron party, also said that some Hindu youths were misguided by their leaders.

He also said that Sangh Parivar should show the courage to own up its wrong-doing. “You cannot stop illegal cattle trafficking by taking law into hands or attacking and killing people. If there are any instances of illegal transportation of cattle, you can inform the police,” he said.

A group of cow vigilantes owing allegiance to Hindutva groups on Wednesday had lynched Praveen Poojary, 29, a BJP worker, to death for indulging in illegal cattle transpiration in Udupi district on August 17. Police have arrested around 25 people in connection with the incident.

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