RSS’s general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in condemning activities of “a handful of opportunistic people who in the name of cow protection” are trying to “poison social harmony”, but the RSS said that Modi should have avoided the remark that such people constitute 80 percent of gau rakshaks in the country. He said the “RSS has always espoused the cause of gau raksha”.

The Prime Minister, during a town hall interaction to mark two years of MyGov, had asked the state governments to prepare a dossier on “those who consider themselves as great gau rakshaks” and then said that “70-80 percent are involved in activities which have no place in the society and they, therefore, don the mantle of gau rakshaks to hide their ills”.

RSS spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya said, “The 80 percent remark should have been avoided but the PM later made amends at Hyderabad, saying only a handful of so-called gau rakshaks were fake. And as regards why issue a statement after the Dalit flogging, it should not be seen as a caste or religion issue. The RSS has always espoused the cause of gau raksha.”

Regarding the angry response of the VHP to the PM’s remark, Vaidya said: “All RSS-inspired organisations are autonomous and are free to express their own assessment and opinion.”

“Many swayamsevaks were upset by the PM’s estimate of fake gau rakshaks but he must have had definite inputs, so he was categorical about it. The RSS, which is finding it difficult to control hot-heads in the VHP, was forced to issue a statement saying such people constituted only a handful,” sources in RSS said.

Senior RSS ideologue M G Vaidya said, “The flogging of Dalits at Una seems like a conspiracy to me. As regard the number of fake gau rakshaks, I will go by what Bhaiyyaji has said. The PM may have had his own inputs about their numbers, but so does Bhaiyyaji since he also moves around the country.”

Vaidya said, “The main thing is gau raksha. It is legally enforceable. Hence, nobody should take the law into his hands. Nobody should be subjected to illegal actions.”

By Premji