Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar has appealed to Muslims to adopt cows and stop eating beef.

At a time when cow vigilantism and violence in the name of cow protection is rampant in the country, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar has appealed to the Muslims to stop eating beef and adopt cows.

ANI reported that Kumar made this appeal while participating in a function organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an organisation affiliated to the RSS. The MRM also asked the Muslims to stop eating beef.

Kumar's statement was backed by RSS. "Even during the rule of many Muslim rulers, they did not eat beef, they respected cows and they had adopted cows. I think the modernity; the cultural and constitutional imperatives demand that Muslims should stop eating beef and adopt cows," ANI quoted RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha as saying.

BJP also backed Kumar's controversial remark. "Indresh Kumarji has only highlighted how the Quran says that we should not be consuming the meat of the cow and the medicinal values of the cow. So I don't think it is the question about any kind of imposition, it is about explaining its logic and its scientific process," DNA quoted BJP leader Shaina NC as saying.

Congress, on the other hand, lashed out at RSS and BJP for Kumar's remark. "How could they ask Muslims to open gaushalas (cow shelters) when they attacked Muslims who earn their bread and butter from selling cow milk?" ANI quoted Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as saying.

Kumar's remark comes at a time when activists working for the welfare of Muslims, especially women, on Thursday said that apart from triple talaq, the community was grappling with several other serious issues that need to be addressed on priority.

Heads of several advocacy groups, mainly working in Maharashtra and Gujarat, asserted that lack of education and healthcare facilities, feeling of insecurity, beef ban, communal riots targetting the minorities, unemployment were some of the issues that Muslims were facing, which need to be addressed.

"We want what the Constitution says for equal opportunities and human rights to every Indian citizen. End of triple talaq would not guarantee alleviation of all the woes of Muslim women. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stand on triple talaq alone is not sufficient. It needs to go beyond that," Hasina Khan of Bebaak Collective and an intervenor in Shayara Bano case, said.

Terming the previous governments at the Centre as merely "vote seekers", Khan said, "It is good that the Modi government has raised the issue of triple talaq, but it should also be cleared that we consider Modi as our hero. He needs to do a lot to instill a sense of social security among us."

With inputs from PTI