MP Congress chief Kamal Nath promises gaushalas amid BJP’s gau sadan-opening spree

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath’s promise of building a cow shelter each in the state’s 23,026 gram panchayats if the party is elected to power has not gone down well with the BJP, which sought to know from where would he find the land and funds for gaushalas. The state’s ruling party also blamed Nath’s colleague and former CM Digvijaya Singh for hurting the cause of the cow.

A perpetual feature of the highways in MP is the presence of large number of cows. ET during its travel last week to Sagar, Chhindwara, Vidisha and Budhni districts from Bhopal spotted over a dozen dead cows, hit by vehicles.

“This situation is due to the policy of ex-CM Digvijaya Singh who snatched away the land meant for cow grazing and gave it away to people who have illegally encroached upon it, leaving no land for the cows to graze on,” BJP state spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal told ET.


Nath said the BJP would only talk a lot about cows. “So many cows are dying on roads but the BJP only does politics over the cow. I cannot see cows dying so I promise that if we come to power, we will open a gaushala in every gram panchayat. This is a promise,” Nath has said.

The BJP wanted to know from where would the land and funds required for gaushalas come from. “This is more of a political statement than actual concern for cows. The BJP has opened eight big Gau Sadans (sanctuaries) in MP and two more of 5,000 capacity each are coming up in Rewa and Agar,” Agrawal said.