‘Cong enacted anti-slaughter Act in 1964 itself’

Former chairman of Legislative Council and chairman of KPCC media and communication wing B L Shankar said that the Congress enacted the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Preservation of Animals Act, 1964, long back.

Addressing a gathering during Congress Samarpanothsava here, on Thursday, he said, “Protection, conservation and development of cattle is not the programme of the BJP alone. The Congress government took steps in this direction in the 1960s itself.”

“There might be black marks like the imposition of the Emergency and the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi on the Congress. But, the Congress has apologised to the nation and its people several times. Even when the Congress had absolute majority, the party was accommodative to the opinion of the Opposition parties. The ideology of the Congress was never to destroy the Opposition party, unlike the present ruling party. The Congress never resorted to revenge politics,” Shankar said.

He asked, was the public sector institutions like HAL, BEL, DRDO, BHEL and HMT in Bengaluru established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

“Did Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa construct dams across rivers like Thungabhadra, Krishna, Malaprabha and Kapila?” he asked. He was reacting to a question of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who asked, what is the contribution of the Congress to Karnataka? during his recent visit.

“The contributions of the Congress include eradication of untouchability, land reforms and unification of 560 princely states. Did Syama Prasad Mukherjee do all this? If India has emerged as the fifth most influential nation and as an economic power house, it is because of the Congress. The BJP leaders should be generous enough to accept the facts,” Shankar said.