The response of the government machinery and the administration since the very first case of bovine-related mob lynching under the current dispensation reflects the construction of this culture of impunity. Filing of cases against the victims of these hate-crimes as the first step of action is just one example, there has been no dearth of subtle and non-so-subtle hints as to where the sympathies of the administration lie. Not a single instance of strong condemnation by government institutions has been witnessed in these cases. On the contrary, such incidences have at times been followed by shows of strength and statements of encouragement for the perpetrators. The tourism minister Mahesh Sharma while visiting the funeral of the accused in Mohammad Akhlaq’s murder is reported to have said, “(the murder) took place as a reaction to that incident (cow slaughter). You must also consider that there was also a 17-year-old daughter in that home. Kisi ne usey ungli nahin lagaayi (nobody touched her).” ML Khattar, the Chief Minister of Haryana, went on to call the lynching a misunderstanding and reinstated bigotry by claiming, “They can be Muslim even after they stop eating beef, can’t they? It is written nowhere that Muslims have to eat beef, not is it written anywhere in Christianity that they have to eat beef.” The BJP President, Amit Shah, made light of and was dismissive of a question on the apprehensions surrounding lynching deaths by claiming that “more lynching occurred prior to this NDA government” and that “there is no apprehension anywhere in the country”. This despite his claim in April 2017 that “action is being taken against cow vigilantes”. Even the Prime Minister, forced to break his deafening silence, issued a seemingly ineffective warning to cow vigilantes. On the very day of his warning on social media, a man in Jharkhand was lynched on the suspicion that he had carried beef in his vehicle.