In order to make room for Modi’s live speech on 15th September regarding “Swachhata Hi Sewa” campaign, 450 cows were allegedly moved out of a Gaushala in Madhya Pradesh to install a television set. This led to the death of 8 cows and many have fallen seriously ill due to starvation and lack of routine care, as reported by The NEWSCLICK. However, the whole action of clearing the cowshed lost its entire point as only 2-3 minutes of the speech could be screened, owing to poor connectivity. Incidentally, this report has surfaced just days after Uttarakhand Assembly had passed the resolution to declare cow as “Rashtra Mata”.

The incident

Naveen Gayatri Gaushala in Pipliya Kulmi village of Rajgarh district in MP reportedly cleared the entire cowshed to televise the speech although the cows were not in a state to be moved. 
This entire fiasco happened as the cows were moved under the open sky of ‘Krishi Mandi’, just one week before the event. The cowshed owners and caretakers failed to look after them as they were pre-occupied by the arrangements for the speech. The cows were not fed properly and many were not even in the condition to be moved out. The district administration has been trying to be very low-key about the entire incident.
This live speech was telecasted in 17 districts selected for their remarkable work in the development of Biogas and Biofuel. This was done with an aim of unveiling the nuances of the Gobardhan Yojana. Rajgarh’s Naveen Gayatri Gaushala was the only cowshed selected in MP for its phenomenal work in producing high volumes of cow-dung which is further used to create biogas. 
“Since a week, the cows have been locked within the farmers’ mandi where they were neither given proper food nor water which led to the death of eight cows and many more fell ill. The cowshed owner and the district administration were busy in the arrangements for conducting the event and forgot the cows”, Shyam Tejari, who is a local resident and a social worker was quoted saying in a report by The NEWSCLICK.

Criticism from opposition

This incident has been condemned by the opposition Congress leaders in the poll-bound state. The Congress chief, Kamal Nath went on to express his displeasure over the incident tweeting, “Cows were killed just to hold PM video conferencing, this is BJP’s cow’s love?”

Also Read: Uttarakhand HC Declares Itself Guardian Of Cows, Says No Pain Or Agony Should Be Inflected Upon Cows