‘Before writing to CMs on cattle sale curbs’

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to concentrate more on the political murders in the State and provide an answer on whether the killings were State-sponsored.

He made the statement when asked by mediapersons here on Saturday on the letter written by Mr. Vijayan to fellow Chief Ministers urging them to protest the curbs on the sale of cattle for slaughter.

Stating that the grave situation in Kerala is about the political killings happening here, Mr. Fadnavis alleged that 17 political murders had taken place in the State in a short span after the LDF government came to power.

“This has never happened in our democracy. Democracy is all about discussion. We are not enemies. We are political opponents. Our ideologies may differ. We may defeat each other in elections. But when you start killing the political opponents and ideologies, you start defeating the democracy,” he said.

Explaining that the beef protests and the opposition against the Centre’s notification on cattle slaughter had no impact in Kerala, Mr. Fadnavis said the BJP did not want to control anybody’s food habits.

“But at the same time the Directive Principles of the state policy, which are part of the Constitution, envisaged that every State government will protect the cow. And scientifically it is proven that where the number of cows has gone down the productivity has been affected. I think the forefathers of our Constitution knew this scientific fact and that is why they have put it in the Constitution,” he said.

Responding to questions on the farmer agitations in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Fadnavis agreed that there is distress among the farmers and his government has been trying to engage with them through dialogue. “We had already announced a loan waiver scheme. The government is planning to expand productivity by focussing on more crop per drop and reducing the input cost,” he said.

Mr. Fadnavis interacted with members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at Irapuram near Perumbavoor in the morning as part of the three years of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

He also addressed a youth convention and interacted with prominent personalities and beneficiaries of central schemes before returning to Mumbai.