Teesta Setalvad: Cow protection laws giving power to gau rakshaks

On Friday, Teesta Setalvad, the Civil right activist alleged that the laws by government which are being passed to protect cow are giving power to ‘gau rakshaks’ to take the law into their hands.

Stating that such laws should be repealed, Setalvad urged the people to take up the issue since the “principal opposition is not raising it”.

Setalvad was speaking during a discussion on “Lynchpin - Looking at the politics of mob violence” at the Tata Literature Live here. Other panelists included Naresh Fernandes (editor of Scroll.in) and Thomas Blom Hansen (professor of anthropology at Stanford University).

“We have in place, in about eight states, including Maharashtra, certain cow protection laws, that actually privilege the gau rakshaks. So, laws are being passed to allow gau rakshaks the power to be vigilantes. We also have to speak about repealing those laws, because it is actually allowing them to take the law into their own hands,” she said.

“These (laws) are all being passed under the current dispensation and the principal opposition is also not raising this issue. So, I think citizens will have to raise this in a rational way, saying that the cow may be a very precious animal for certain sections of Indians, but you cannot privilege lynching and killing of human beings over this issue,” she added.