MEERUT: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Shamli unit has its work planned for 2016. Out of the 144 villages in the district, the Hindutva outfit plans to set up a cow shelter in at least half by the end of the year. The eventual plan is to have one in every village. When asked where they would find the infrastructure, a VHP leader said they would use old temples as cow shelters.
“The cow is an important part of our Indian heritage and culture. However, it is sad that many cows are either illegally sold for slaughter or lead miserable lives on the street since there is nobody to take care of them. We want to correct this and there is a simple solution – more cow shelters. We want to set up one in every village,” said Subhash Malik, Shamli district president of the VHP.
“Each of these gaushalas will have the capacity to house between 10-20 cows. The size of these shelters will be so manageable that they can be run on a local level. These will be run by dedicated village residents and the VHP will give any assistance possible to them. The aim is to protect the cow,” Malik added.
When asked how they would fund the campaign, the district president said, “We will ask for donations to raise money. People will not mind contributing a little to this cause given the importance of the cow in our culture. As far as infrastructure is concerned, we will use temples. There are several old, broken-down temples in Shamli’s villages. We will use them as the sites for the new cow shelters.”
In the sensitive Shamli district, which was among the worst hit by the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, communal tensions had been running high after a 24-year-old Hindu girl had eloped with her family’s 40-year-old Muslim tenant. While the girl, in her statement to the court, had said she went with him willingly, the VHP has claimed that she was influenced by “black magic”.