New Delhi: At a time when cow vigilantism is on the rise and amid backlash from several states on the Centre’s call for ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter, Sadhvi Saraswati, a preacher with the Sanatan Dharm Prachar Seva Samiti, has called for public execution of those who eat cow meat.

Speaking at the inauguration of the sixth All India Hindu Convention in Goa on Wednesday, June 14, Saraswati said she would make an appeal to the Narendra Modi-led BJP government to hang those who consume beef as a “status symbol,” Indian Express reported.

The preacher from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh also urged Hindus to rear cows in order to protect them and to stock arms to “save our women from love jihad”.

The four-day event is being organised by the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti – allied to the Sanathan Sanstha.

“Whoever harms cow or abuses the country can only be termed as our enemy,” Saraswati was quoted by the Times of India as saying. “Those politicians who are supporting the consumption of beef in the country and those who see it as a status symbol should be publicly executed by the government.”

Her comments come amid rising tension, both within the BJP and outside, over the government’s attempts to curtail beef sale and consumption. Last month, to protest the Centre’s ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter, two BJP leaders from Meghalaya made an exit from the party. The state also passed a resolution against the Centre’s notification and demanded its withdrawal as it would “impact the economy of the state and the food habits of its people”.

Saraswati’s call for hanging those against cow slaughter is another comment in the series of those made by Hindutva leaders against beef consumption.

In early June, senior Rashtriya Sevika Samiti (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar had urged Muslim to break their Ramzan fast with milk instead of beef, adding that those who eat cow meat do not have human rights.

Responding to those in the Northeast and Kerala who argued that beef-eating is a cultural practice, Kumar in a separate instance had also equated the consumption of cow meat to tobacco, adding that it was a “bad habit” and that it was the “government’s duty” to discourage it.

In April, Radha Krishna Manori of the VHP had claimed that the Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini “were capable of” stopping cow slaughter or beef eating in Goa without the government’s help, adding that the VHP strongly professes ‘dharma raksha’, which also includes ‘gau raksha’.

(With PTI inputs)

Note: In an earlier version of this story, Sadhvi Saraswati was identified as a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. While she may be associated with, or be a member of, the VHP, she is formally the head of the Sanatan Dharma Prachar Seva Samiti.