BJP dubs Akhilesh's cow remark 'insensitive'

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP on Monday dubbed state Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's statement on cows as "insensitive" and accused him of milking the issue for political ends.

State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the remark was not only "insensitive but also aimed at milking the cow as a symbol of politics".

Uttar Pradesh was going through a bad patch and communal harmony was under threat and this statement of Yadav at such a time was "uncalled for and unfortunate", Pathak said.

"The chief minister is now trying to divide the polity on the lines of holy animals as if his government's earlier steps to communally divide the people through various welfare schemes and compensations were not enough," the BJP leader said while accusing Yadav of adding fuel to the fire in "communally sensitive times".

Yadav said on Sunday in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, that the BJP had nothing to do with the cow and that it was theirs, alluding to the fact that the Yadavs were traditionally associated with rearing of cows.

The UP chief minister also accused the BJP and other parties of stoking communal passions on the issue of cow and said the September 28 Dadri lynching was a result of politics of rumours and hatred spread by vested interests and some political parties.