Vijay Sampla: ‘If you follow law, no gau rakshak will cross your path’

Sampla, who belongs to the Ravidassia Dalit community, pointed to his own rise in the party to argue that BJP was not “anti-Dalit”. He said the party was not associated with any cow vigilante group and did not condone violence in the name of cow protection. He, however, added that people must respect sentiments of those who worship the animal.

He said, “If someone calls the cow their mother, and others are dragging the cow to slaughter it and only to eat its mean, then there are other kinds of meat that can be eaten. Punjab has a law against cow slaughter, which is punishable by imprisonment. Then why are people transporting cow for slaughter? An issue is being made out that gau rakshaks are attacking these vehicles, but why are media not saying that there is a law and these cow smugglers are violating it?”

“I want to tell the people from this platform that if we all follow the law, no gau rakshak will cross your path, and everyone will live in peace,” he added.

The minister said the unrest in the Dalit community in other parts of the country would not affect Punjab, where Dalits constitute 32 per cent of the population, the highest in any state.

The AAP has been wooing Dalit voters with an eye on the upcoming Assembly polls. Sampla, however, slammed the AAP as “headless, thoughtless, senseless and baseless”. “None of its members could be called ‘aam aadmi’. I do not consider them to be a political party. It would be better if they refer to themselves as a drama club. They are the best in doing nautanki,” he said.

Asked if former MP Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from BJP after he quit Rajya Sabha, Sampla said he had not received any such information. Reacting to Sidhu’s statement that the party asked him to stay away from Punjab, he said, “No one from BJP told Sidhu to stay away from Punjab.”