Govt to try ‘level best’ for ban on cow slaughter: Rajnath

The NDA government will try its "level best" to bring in a countrywide ban on slaughter of cows by evolving a consensus, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said.

"Cow slaughter cannot be accepted in this country. We will make all-out efforts to ban slaughter of cows and will also try hard to have a consensus for this purpose," he told a gathering of spiritual leaders of Shwetambar Jains, a prominent sect of Jainism.

Referring to the cow slaughter ban in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader said nobody should doubt the government's commitment to prevent slaughter of cows.

"Nobody can question our commitment to ban slaughter of cows. The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has enacted a tough law for this purpose so has the Maharashtra government. We didn't spare time to send a bill passed by Maharashtra government to President for his assent," Singh said referring to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act which also extends the ban on slaughter of bulls and bullocks.

On the occasion, Acharya Shivmuni wanted the Centre to bring in a legislation in the current Budget Session for banning slaughter of buffaloes besides cows.

To this, Singh said the government needs to have an absolute majority in both Houses of Parliament to enforce complete ban on slaughter of cows.