RSS leader (centre) Indresh Kumar at Panjab University on Wednesday. Sahil Walia
SENIOR RASHTRIYA Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar on Wednesday suggested revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir as an “experiment” to check whether people would as a reaction burn the tricolour or unfurl it. Kumar’s comments came days after J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti said in New Delhi that if the special constitutional status of J&K was tampered with or the Permanent Resident Act (35A) – a provision that empowers the state’s permanent residents – is removed, there would be “no one to shoulder the Indian flag in the Valley.”
“Hamara NDA ke sath jude huwe partner PDP ke Mukhya Mantri Mehbooba (Mufti) us ne keh diya hai ke agar Article 370 se cheda, toh Tiranga ko kanda dene wala koi nahi hoga. Main keh raha hu apke beech main, ki Farooq Abdullah, ya Ghulam Nabi (Azad) ya Mehbooba ki Geelani, ya Shabir, sabko kehta hu, ki ek baar Jammu&Kashmir main ek experiment karke dekhlo. 370 hatakar dekho ki log tiranga leherate hai ki tiranga jalate hai. Do it as an experiment. I can request them. Aapko sach pata lag jayega aur duniya ko bhi sach pata lag jayega… (The NDA’s partner Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that if Article 370 is touched with, there will be no one to shoulder the tricolor. I am telling you, I keep telling Farooq (Abdullah), Ghulam Nabi (Azad), Mehbooba (Mufti) or Geelani (Syed Ali Shah), Shabbir (Shah), everyone see doing an experiment in Jammu and Kashmir to remove Article 370 to see if people unfurl the flag or burn it. Do it as experiment. I can request them. They will know the truth and the world would also know the truth…,” said Kumar, while addressing the media on the sidelines of a function.
The RSS leader also claimed that beef export from India was on the decline. “If you (media) get the official statistics of beef export from the government, you will find the export has reduced and it has been stopped. But now, buffalo export is also linked to beef export. So, it needs to be checked,” he said.
Saying that sacrificing the cow and eating its meat is a “sin and crime”, Kumar said the cow meat is a poison and the killing of cow was not allowed in any religion.
On a question, if he was suggesting that people should not eat beef, Kumar said they were not forcing anybody.
“Tobacco is also called poison and it is mentioned on it (packets). We are not forcing anyone. We are only telling what is truth and correct. It (eating beef) is not prohibiting anyone,” he said.
The RSS leader also said space should be created for the stray cattle and also the y(cattle) should be kept at homes. “Cow is the mother of humanity. Why it shouldn’t be protected…We shouldn’t hit them with sticks and instead respect them,” he said.
Kumar, who was in Chandigarh to attend an event organised by the Forum for Awareness of National Security, claimed that cowdung has anti-radiation qualities and can be used to make security bunkers.
