When an elderly dairy farmer, returning home with a cow purchased in Jaipur, is beaten up so brutally by an Alwar mob that he can’t survive the injuries, there can be no justification for his murder. Yet, the death of Pehlu Khan was followed by Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria intoning, “The problem is from both the sides. People know cow trafficking is illegal but they do it. Gau bhakts try to stop those who indulge in such crimes.” This is dangerously false equivalence. Identifying and punishing crimes is the job of police. In any case there isn’t much evidence that Khan was a cow trafficker. Rajasthan government should severely punish his murderers instead of valorising them as gau bhakts.

During the discussion on the incident in Rajya Sabha yesterday, parliamentary affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi spoke about being “sensitive” to the “emotions” of crores of people. But after a murder, facts have to take priority over emotions and hysteria if India is to have a semblance of good governance. India is the largest producer of milk in the world, with around 85% of its dairy workforce being small farm holders. This necessarily involves buying, selling, transporting milch animals. If this transporting is endangered it hurts the dairy, leather and allied businesses which employ millions of people – alongside social harmony.

If in one place an administration is seen to be either passive or supportive of cow vigilantism, it will stoke similar fires elsewhere in the country. Signs are already ominous from Dadri and Una to Alwar. Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks of gau raksha being part of the Indian freedom struggle. But what about the bigger legacy of ahimsa and justice? It’s these inheritances that Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje must champion.