Bajrang Dal leader claims the group saved 86 lakh cows from being slaughtered since '96

A Bajrang Dal leader on Sunday claimed that since 1996 the group’s activists have saved around 86 lakh ‘gauvansh’ (bovine) from getting slaughtered, as he spoke of dangers of ‘Love Jihad’ and other ‘threats’ to Hindus. In an interaction with reporters at the Madhav Gyan Kendra in Naini here, Neeraj Doneria said that in 1996 around 25,000 workers of Bajrang Dal took a vow in the Sangam area of Prayagraj that they will protect all cows from getting slaughtered.

Doneria, the national convenor of Bajrang Dal, was speaking at the end of a week-long training programme of the right-wing group held here.

He also said that Bajrang Dal will hold a ‘Rashtriya Sahasik Yatra’ in Rajouri-Poonch area from August 17 to August 27.

The area was the scene of migration of hundreds of Hindu families between 1990 and 2005, he said, and the yatra is being held to instil a sense of safety among Hindus in this area, he added. Doneria said Bajrang Dal was formed in 1984 and currently has 52,000 conveners and around 1 crore active members. He also said that the vigilante group strives to bring back to Hindu fold the women who have fallen prey to ‘love jihad’ by taking up the matter with the police, their family members, and adopting legal ways. ‘Love jihad’ is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage. The vigilante leader called ‘love jihad’ a conspiracy of the Islamic jihadis, which is changing the population ratio in India.

Bajrang Dal is standing like a rock against the agenda of the jihadis, he asserted.

In the past few months, VHP youth wing Bajrang Dal has been attacked by several political leaders for its vigilante ways.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stoked a political storm, when in the run up to the Karnataka assembly election he compared Bajrang Dal with Popular Front of India, a banned outfit.

A JD(U) leader earlier in the month called for a ban on Bajrang Dal.