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New Delhi: It is unfair to link cow vigilante groups to BJP as the party does not back them, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today as he stoutly defended the government’s development agenda.
In an interview to a news agency, the former BJP president said the government was focused on ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (Together with all, Development for all) and its policies have not discriminated against religious minorities.
“Any saffron clad person on television is immediately related to us (BJP) whereas the fact is that we don’t have any relation with that person,” he said.
“We don’t support such people.” Gadkari said violence in the name of protecting cows “should not have happened”. “This is not our agenda. Those who are doing this are not our people. Those who did it are wrong. We are not with them. Prime Minister had condemned (them)…we all have condemned (such violence). Why then are they being foisted on our name,” he said.
Stating that it was not fair to link such groups with the BJP, he alleged that the move was part of a Left campaign to malign the party and project it as anti-minority and anti- Dalit.
