Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's BJP receives setbacks on multiple fronts as the party contests polls in the country's largest state Uttar Pradesh
The domestic policies driven by religion and steered by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party seem to be coming home to roost. At least on three occasions – in three parts of India – experiments to implement sweeping Hindutva-led policies to reap political benefits have rebounded. The latest one occurred last week in the middle of a seven-phase poll in India’s most populous northern state, Uttar Pradesh , with little over 150 million voters.
Bovines, especially cows, are considered sacred animals in Hinduism. Soon after coming to power in 2017, Adityanath, the head priest of a Hindu order of shrines, banned illegal abattoirs, mainly run by Muslims and backward castes of India. The slaughter ban was apparently imposed to reduce pollution and prevent animal cruelty – both guided by laws in India.
” and the Chief Minister had assured to make “cow shelters in large numbers and provide a monthly stipend to farmers for upkeep of cows.” Assamese nationalists are not too keen to “divide” illegal immigrants along religious lines, and AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath warned that implementation of the law “will be resisted both in the court and the streets of Assam.” He was backed by the civil society groups and the legitimate opposition parties in Assam.