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'BJP does not care for cow protection'

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

A top official of the one-year-old Cow Protection Commission, who has resigned from the job, has flayed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for ''simply doing lip-service in the name of gauraksha (cow protection)''.

R C Dikshit, a retired Indian Police Service officer of the 1964 batch, who was appointed secretary of what is called the Uttar Pradesh Gau Sewa Ayog in May 1999, chose to put in his papers exactly one year after the constitution of the special body. He felt "the commission was formed only to accommodate a few party favourites on some position of importance".

"When I was picked up for the job in May 1999, I thought this would render me some opportunity to serve the cause of the otherwise neglected cow, to which I had always been devoted right from my childhood," Dikshit told rediff.com. "But my association with this 28-member commission over the past one year has proved beyond doubt that even the BJP means nothing more than lip-service for the cow."

Disillusioned with the state government's apathy towards the cause, Dikshit said, "I could see the hollowness in the party's much-touted slogan of gauraksha right from the time I assumed this office; but still remained optimistic that that since the BJP had always been devoted to the cause of the cow, things would brighten up and we would actually be able to meet the objectives of the commission."

The former police officer, who retired as director general of police (training) in 1997, realised that those entrusted with the task of cow protection were only ''interested in milking funds out of the commission. All I was busy doing over the past one year was to receive expenditure bills of the commission members, who considered it their birthright to get anything and everything reimbursed at their sweet will."

Known for his ''hard nut to crack'' reputation -- he exposed the Rs 60 million float pump scam involving then chief minister Mayawati -- Dikshit refused to clear a top official's travelling bills of some Rs 40,000. "This was when the commission had yet to formally commence its activities, for which an action plan submitted to the government was still pending approval," he said.

The commission has been constituted with the objective of ensuring proper monitoring and care of not only stray cows but even those living in state-owned or private cowsheds.

It was also expected to "procure fodder and make it available for cows during times of famine, drought or other natural calamities, assist in producing pedigree species of cows, besides formulating schemes for the consideration of the government for development of cottage industries".

"Not a single of these objectives were taken into account over the one-year period since the commission came into being," he lamented.

He was also unhappy with the government's apathy towards the whole affair. "Neither was any effort made to expedite the clearance of a special Rs 20 lakh seed capital, nor did anyone care to even initiate the first step towards fulfilment of the larger objective of cow protection," he added.

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