Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Jyotirmath addresses the media during 'Gau Dhwaj Sthapana Bharat Yatra' function, in Lucknow, Monday.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: A day after skipping a visit to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya as it was 'incomplete,' Swami Avimukteshwaranand Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of Badrikashram Jyotirmath, Uttarakhand, on Monday attacked prime minister Narendra Modi for not enacting a law to ban cow slaughter throughout the country and said that India never had a President or PM who could be called 'real' Hindu.
Speaking to reporters here, the Shankaracharya, who had embarked on a nationwide ''Goraksha Yatra'' (Cow protection Yatra), said that the BJP got votes of the Hindus in the name of cow protection but its government did not do anything in the past ten years in this regard.
''Before becoming PM Narendra Modi used to say that his heart ached when cows were slaughtered....he has become PM for the third time....does his heart not ache for the cows now?,'' he said.
The Shankaracharya's remarks on Modi came within days of the latter sharing a video on his 'X' account of a newborn calf 'Deepjyoti'.
Avimukteshwaranand said that the BJP had opposed his visit to Nagaland and banned my entry there when he had undertaken the "Goraksha Yatra'' to demand that the 'Gomata' (cow) be declared ''Rashtra Mata''.
''The Nagaland unit of the BJP wrote a letter seeking a ban on my entry there stating that cow slaughter and eating beef was part of their culture.
Shankaracharya claimed that Uttar Pradesh topped the list of the states where there were maximum cow slaughterhouses. ''It's very painful as the chief minister of the state is associated with ''Go Raksha Peeth'', he said.
He said that the Congress, whose election symbol, earlier, was ''cow and calf''' also did not do anything for the protection of the cow. ''Then we had a BJP government, which said that it would work on it when it had an absolute majority....it made the government thrice but it also did nothing,'' he added.
Avimukteshwaranand said that the country never had Presidents and PMs who were 'true' Hindus. ''Had they been true Hindus they would have prevented slaughter of the cows,'' he remarked.
He also said that he had embarked on the yatra after obtaining consent of all the three remaining Shankaracharyas.