Whoever thought that the jingoism going on in the name of cow vigilantism is a tale from the yonder, something too rustic to unsettle the urbane, is up for a surprise. And not a pleasant one at that!
If this story narrated by a man hailing from Assam is to be believed, the self-assumed cow vigilantes (whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently termed “anti-social”) have spread their tentacles in Mumbai as well and are not ashamed to impose their gau-friendly “rules” openly.
The incident took place on Friday evening, when Kashyap who works with a production house, took an auto-rickshaw for his workplace. The auto driver, identified as Ashish, saw a leather bag in Kashyap’s possession. At a traffic signal he leaned back and touched the bag before telling Kashyap that the bag was made of cow skin.
Spotting of the leather was the beginning of an ordeal for Kashyap, who told the auto-driver that he bought it from Rajasthan. Admonishing Kashyap, the auto-driver told him that ‘because of people like me cow slaughter is encouraged’.
Kashyap retorted by asking the auto-driver to mind his own business, which he did by taking his auto in a bylane. He stopped near a temple and signalled three men sitting and smoking in front of the temple.
“Three men with red Tilak mark worn on the forehead approach the auto and start conversing in marathi which I could not decipher,” his post reads.
“When I protested, the three men asked me to step out of the auto which I refused. When I was busy protesting, one of the guys came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag. One of the guys then asked me my name… Barun” I replied. What’s your full name was the next question… “Barun Kashyap Bhuyan”,” he added.
“The guy looked at the other two and said something in marathi out of which I could only understand the word “Brahmin”. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin. They left the site after bidding farewell to the auto driver, the fellow cow protector. At the next signal I got off from the auto, noted the auto number and asked for his phone number which he proudly gave to me saying – aaj toh bach gaye,” Kashyap said.
On Saturday Kashyap approached the police, who filed a non-cognizable complaint (NC) against three men. When asked why only an NC was filed, a police officer said it was because “there was no physical harm done to Kashyap,” said police sources.
Apparently, it will probably take a lot more than Modi’s speeches to contain gau rakshaks in the country.
