Gau rakshaks taught a valuable lesson to Dalits by beating them up: BJP MLA Raja Singh

Raja Singh (39), who is an MLA from Goshamahal in Hyderabad, is known as Rajabhaiyya in his constituency and claims protection of cows to be his life’s mission.

“I extend my full support to all those who take it upon themselves to teach those few Dalits a valuable lesson…We must carry on the good work and should not stay silent till the cow mother is revered as Mother India,” he told The Indian Express.

“I want to tell secularists, political leaders, and especially Mayawati ji, who are criticising the attack on Dalits that it is because of a few Dalits that others in the community who are patriotic and religious are getting a bad name. Here in Hyderabad, so many Dalits are ‘gau rakshaks’ and work with me to protect cows… We have formed ‘gau rakshak’ groups in all the districts of Telangana, and in each group nearly 60 per cent of the members are Dalits.

“There are very few Dalits who consume cow meat or kill cows, maybe 5 per cent. An atmosphere has been created in the country that Dalits are being beaten up, but no one is seeing that a few of them are being attacked because they are doing wrong things like slaughtering a cow or carrying cow meat,’’ the MLA added.

G Kishan Reddy, Telangana BJP president, said that it was Singh’s personal opinion and the party had nothing to do with his comments. “He is not involved with party activities since several months. His comments are his own,’’ said Reddy.

Singh, meanwhile, claims that he and his group of ‘gau rakshaks’, hailing from all Hindu castes, have saved more than 1,000 cows in Hyderabad from being taken to slaughter houses.

Singh entered politics in 2009, when he joined the Telugu Desam Party and won as a municipal councillor from Mangalhat. Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he joined BJP and wrested the Goshamahal Assembly seat from the Congress. There are 60 FIRs registered against him.