Shankaracharya seeks ban on cow slaughter, plans 'yatra'

Hindu organisations will soon launch a unique rath yatra to pressure the central and state governments to impose a complete ban on cow slaughter.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Jagadguru Swami Raghaveshwar Bharati, the Shankaracharya of Gokarna Pitha, Karnataka, said efforts should be made to declare cow a national animal and protect it.

“The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre should move in this direction,” he said.

Giving details about the rath yatra, the Shankaracharya said, “We will soon launch a 108-day yatra to push for this (ban on cow slaughter). The yatra, which will spread the message ‘Save cow, save village’, will be flagged off at Kurukshetra in Haryana on September 28, Vijaya Dashami. It will culminate at Nagpur, Maharashtra, on Makar Sankranti in 2010 after a 20,000-km journey.”

Apart from the main rath, 15,000 small raths will travel 10 lakh km during the 108-day journey.

“Meetings will be held at 400 places across the country. A signature campaign will also be run. We expect to collect around 50 crore signatures and submit the document to president Pratibha Patil.”

Lambasting alleged terrorism sponsored by the Church and Islamic organisations, the
seer said Hindus were in danger.

“Corrective measures should be taken in this regard,” the religious head said.