The sentencing of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in a case of fodder scam may finally take place on Friday, after being deferred twice and the judge hearing the case indicating that he was being threatened by Lalu’s men.

In a startling revelation, Justice Shivpal Singh, who is set to pronounce the quantum of punishment for the former Bihar chief minister on Thursday said that he “got phone calls from Lalu’s men”.

“I got phone calls from Lalu’s men about the case,” the judge said indicating that he might have been threatened to award a lighter sentence to Lalu.

Lalu is likely to get three to seven years’ punishment, as per reports. If he is awarded three years’ sentence, he will be able to get bail soon.

The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge deferred Lalu’s sentencing along with 15 others first on Wednesday on account of the death of two lawyers and then again on Thursday.

The quantum of punishment may now be pronounced on Friday.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief is at present lodged in the Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi after being convicted on December 23.

His co-accused and former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra was let off in the case pertaining to embezzlement of over Rs. 85 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury between 1991 and 1994.

A total of 17 accused including Lalu were pronounced guilty by the court while six were let off.

The RJD chief has already been convicted in another fodder scam case that cost him his Lok Sabha seat and disqualified him from contesting elections. Both Lalu and Jagannath Mishra are out on bail in the case.

Hearing in the multi-million fodder scam case was completed on December 13 in a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Ranchi.

In all, there were 34 accused in the case, out of which 11 died during the course of the trial, while one turned CBI approver and admitted the crime.

The rupee gained 10 paise to trade at over 2-1/2 year high of 63.31 against the US dollar in early session today on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

Besides, stock markets opening with gains and sustained foreign fund inflows also supported the domestic unit, forex dealers said.

The dollar’s weakness against some currencies overseas also supported the rupee’s upmove.

The rupee opened higher at 63.35 a dollar and moved to a high of 63.31 a dollar in early trade.

The rupee on Thursday bounced back to end at a fresh 2-1/2 year high of 63.41, gaining by 12 paise against the US dollar on optimism over a brightening economic picture.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex rose 100.48 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 34,070.12 in early trade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday wished veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on his birthday and credited him for leaving a “strong mark” on the education sector with his “great work”.

“Birthday greetings to our senior leader Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi. He has made a significant contribution in building the BJP,” tweeted Modi.

“He left a strong mark on our education sector with his great work. May he be blessed with a long and healthy life,” he said.

https://x.com/narendramodi/status/949096112274644993

Born on January 5, 1934, Joshi was the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) between 1991 and 1993, and at present is a Lok Sabha member from Kanpur.

Joshi was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, in 2017 by the Government of India.

Joshi along with party veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani were dropped from the party’s Parliamentary Board and made a part of the Margdarshak Mandal after Amit Shah became the BJP chief in 2014.

Taking a cue from global markets, the key Indian equity market indices on opened higher on Friday.

The Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had closed at 33,969.64 points on Thursday, opened higher at 34,021.27 points.

Minutes into trading, it was quoting at 34,090.14 points, up by 120.50 points, or 0.35 per cent.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 51-scrip Nifty, which had closed at 10,504.80 points, was quoting at 10,531.30 points, up by 26.50 points or 0.25 per cent.

After three sessions of losses, the key Indian equity indices on Thursday recovered from the lows to close in the green as positive global cues, along with inflow of foreign funds and healthy buying in consumer durables, capital goods and metal stocks, lifted investors’ risk-taking appetite.

The Sensex was up by 176.26 points or 0.52 per cent at the Wednesday’s closing. In the day’s trade, the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index had touched a high of 33,995.40 points and a low of 33,802.13 points. The Nifty too was up by 61.60 points or 0.59 per cent.

On Friday, Asian indices were mostly showing a positive trend. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading in green, up by 0.36 per cent, Hang Seng up by 0.15 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi was also up by 1 per cent. China’s Shanghai Composite index was quoting in green, up by 0.23 per cent.

Nasdaq closed in green, up by 0.18 per cent while FTSE 100 was also up by 0.32 per cent at the closing on Thursday.

On the last day of Parliament’s winter session with no end in sight to the deadlock in the Rajya Sabha over the Triple Talaq Bill, the government, outnumbered in the upper house is likely to finally send the contentious bill to a parliamentary committee, effectively ruling out its passage in the ongoing session.

The truncated and delayed winter session ends on Friday and the Muslim Women Protection of Rights in Marriage Bill 2017, which in all likelihood will be sent for review can only be passed in the next session of Parliament as first, the panel has to be set up which will then scrutinise the bill and suggest changes.

As soon as the bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday, the house witnessed noisy scenes as a united opposition led by the Congress demanded that the bill be sent to a Select Committee.

In minority in the upper house, the government didn’t get any support from friendly parties like the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal while its ally Telugu Desam Party too demanded that the bill be reviewed by a select committee.

The government however, was against any climbdown on the bill that also provides for maintenance for victims of triple talaq and custody of children resulting in a stalemate which triggered a fierce slugfest forcing the house to be adjourned for the day.

The legislation, which seeks to make instant Triple Talaq illegal with up to three years in jail as punishment, was passed last week by the Lok Sabha, where the government has a brute majority.

However, the opposition leaders are claiming that an isolated BJP is in no position to stop them from moving a resolution that the bill be sent to a select committee.

With no solution in sight, the fate of the crucial bill and millions of Muslim women hangs in balance.

Hours after sacking Thisara Perera as the One-day International (ODI) captain, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Thursday announced that they will name a new limited overs skipper next Tuesday.

The SLC said it would name Perera’s successor after consulting new coach Chandika Hathurusingha, who has pledged to get tough with the under-performing national team.

Perera took on the job in late November, succeeding Upul Tharanga, who was sacked after a series of losses.

“During the discussion, the chairman of selectors informed me that they are considering appointing either Angelo Mathews or Dinesh Chandimal to fill the role,” SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala said in a statement.

“Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will announce its limited over captain on January 9,” it further stated.

A series of losses, most recently to India, have affected the morale of the Islanders who will next tour Bangladesh later this month.

Criticising West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her “conspiracy” comments on updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Thursday said she was making it “an issue out of a non-issue” for political interest.

“Nothing of that sort is being done. Some surveys were conducted to drive out foreigners. In the first draft of NRC, many names of our party leaders are missing. Such allegations are made to get political mileage out of it,” Ghosh said

“The Trinamool (Congress) supremo is trying to make an issue out of a non-issue. The updating of NRC was our responsibility, but for her it was an (political) issue,” he added.

Banerjee had claimed the updating of the NRC to determine the state’s original inhabitants was a “conspiracy to drive away Bengalis” from there.

An intense “bomb cyclone” battered the US East Coast on Thursday with high winds and heavy snowfalls, leaving thousands of flights cancelled, numerous schools and offices closed and millions of Americans bracing for potential power shortages.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said Thursday three people have died in the snow storm, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The storm will produce heavy snow along the Mid-Atlantic Coast into Southern New England by Thursday morning that will move northward into the Northeast by Thursday afternoon, while ending over the Mid-Atlantic Coast by Thursday evening,” the US National Weather Service wrote in an earlier alert.

US forecasters called the ongoing winter storm a “bomb cyclone” for its rapid and rare drop in atmospheric pressure. The storm is crawling up the northeastern American Thursday morning with a threat of winds gusting as high as 60 mph and a bone-chilling blast of Arctic air.

Through Thursday, parts of New York could see five to nine inches, Philadelphia three to six inches and Washington one to two inches.

In New England, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, could get eight to 12 inches, while Portland, Maine, could see 10 to 15 inches, the US National Weather Service said.

The service also said Atlantic City could record up to 18 inches of snow, Delaware beach towns were facing the prospect of a foot of snow and travel has become “very dangerous to impossible” in the highly populated Hampton Roads region of Virginia, which could receive up to 12 inches of snow in places.

More than 3,000 flights were cancelled on Thursday, with airports in New York, Newark, New Jersey; Boston reporting the most cancellations, according to FlightAware, an aviation tracking website.

Taking the strictest action against Pakistan, the US has announced that it was freezing most security aid and the delivery of military equipment because Islamabad continues to shelter terrorists despite several warnings from President Donald Trump and other leaders.

“We will not be delivering military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Thursday.

The freeze will be enforced “until the Pakistani Government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network”, she said.

Nauert said that Pakistan’s failure to take action against Lakshar-e-Taiba leader Hafeez Saeed was not a factor in the action.

“To my knowledge, that has nothing to do with that.”

Thursday’s announcement was in addition to the $255 million in foreign military assistance that the Trump administration in August said it was withholding, she said.

However, Nauert did not give the size of the assistance that was now being suspended.

“We are still working through some of those dollar numbers right now.”

Asked about the types of military equipment covered by the freeze, Nauert said: “I’m not going to be able to get into the specifics of that. A lot of that is under DoD (Department of Defence), so I just won’t have the details about that.”

She said that some exceptions could be made to the suspensions if it was determined that portions of the frozen aid were “critical to national security interests” or “required by law”.

Nauert said that if Pakistan took decisive action against terrorists, it “has the ability to get this money back in the future”.

“We have been clear with Pakistan what they need to do… A lot of this would fall under some of the private diplomatic conversations that the US government is having with Pakistan, so a lot of that stuff I’m not going to be able to share because that would give away information to people we don’t want to have that information.”

In another action against Islmabad, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson placed Pakistan on a “special watch list for severe violations of religious freedom”.

The US depends on Pakistan for ferrying supplies to its troops in landlocked Afghanistan.

Asked at a separate news conference on Thursday if he was concerned that Islamabad might shut down access routes to US troops in Afghanistan, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said: “We have had no indication of anything like that.”

He declined to comment when he was asked if he favoured cutting off aid to Pakistani.

Nauert added that Pakistan had been given adequate notice to shut down the terrorist networks.

She recalled Trump’s speech in August in which he warned Pakistan against giving sanctuary to terrorists.

“It has been more than four months since the President’s speech, and despite a sustained high-level engagement by this administration with the government of Pakistan, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network continue to find sanctuary inside Pakistan as they plot to destabilise Afghanistan and also attack US and allied personnel,” she said.

In his first tweet of the New Year, Trump said that the US had given Pakistan $33 billion in aid over 15 years and accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists while making “fools” of US leaders with lies and deceit.

“No more,” he said, of Washington’s aid to Pakistan.

Hours before the tweet, a US Special Forces soldier had been killed in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, and four were injured in a terrorist attack.

South Korea and North Korea on Friday agreed to hold high-level talks next week to discuss Pyongyang’s potential participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and ways to improve bilateral ties.

North Korea notified that it has accepted South Korea’s latest offer for talks on January 9, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Unification Ministry as saying.

“The two sides decided to discuss working-level issues for the talks by exchanging documents,” Baik Tae-hyun, ministry spokesman at the ministry, told a press briefing.

The move comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed willingness to send a delegation to the Olympics to be held in South Korea next month and said the country was open to inter-Korean talks over the matter.

The agreement came as South Korea and the US agreed late Thursday to delay their joint military drills during the Winter Olympics.

North Korea has long denounced the military drills as a war rehearsal and used them as an excuse for its provocations. But South Korea and the US said that the exercises were defensive in nature.

Next week’s talks will be the first inter-Korean dialogue since December 2015.

After a nine-year rule of two conservative governments, liberal President Moon Jae-in, who favours engagement with Pyongyang, took office in May 2016.

But North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats have prompted him to maintain the dual track of seeking sanctions and dialogue.

Seoul hopes that better inter-Korean relations can help pave the way for the resolution of North Korea’s nuclear issue and broader talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Some experts said that North Korea’s overture to South Korea may be aimed at weakening the united front in enforcing sanctions on Pyongyang and driving a wedge in the decades-long alliance between Seoul and Washington.

After Wednesday’s violence-hit ‘Maharashtra Shutdown’, police on Thursday abruptly axed permission to a day-long student convention in which Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mewani and JNU student leader Umar Khalid were to take part.

Simultaneously, Pune Police registered a FIR against the two leaders for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at a meeting in Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31.

Mumbai Police swooped on the Bhaidas Hall, in the posh western suburb of Vile Parle on Thursday morning, and stopped the Left-leaning Chhatra Bharati’s All India Students Summit which was scheduled to be addressed by Khalid and Mewani.

Considered the Dalit face of Gujarat politics and convenor of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, Mewani was elected to the state Assembly last month as an Independent.

The police broke up the planned convention, citing prohibitory orders imposed in Mumbai after Wednesday’s state-wide shutdown which left a 16-year old student dead in Nanded.

Opposing the police move, Chhatra Bharati members staged noisy protests, raised anti-government slogans and attempted to squat outside the venue. Many were seen running on to the main road outside.

Defying the police, some attempted to enter the auditorium but were evicted by the police. Many were bundled into a police van and detained.

Chhatra Bharati Vice President Sagar Bhalerao said the day-long event was planned long ago in which both Mewani, Khalid and others were listed speakers.

Maharashtra legislator Kapil Patil said around 800 students and delegates including many girls were dumped into police vans and taken to various police stations where they were detained for several hours.

“The police are acting at the behest of the BJP-Shiv Sena government to crush the voice of the students who raise uncomfortable questions. This is a fascist government,” Patil told the media.

Demanding the release of the detained students, scores of students squatted outside the Juhu police station raising anti-government slogans.

In Pune, the police late on Wednesday booked Mewani and Khalid for ‘inciting passions’ between communities following a complaint by a Pune-based student, Akshay G. Bikkad.

Bikkad said that at a meeting held on December 31, Mewani and Khalid made allegedly inflammatory speeches that could create misunderstanding between communities, and included excerpts from the objectionable speeches.

The complainant said that such inflammatory speeches can create a wedge and enmity between communities. Provoked by these utterances, some miscreants attacked the Victory Pillar (Vijay Stambh) in Koregaon-Bhima resulting in riots and created arson on January 1, he said.

The developments came in the wake of the series of disturbances in Maharashtra starting with the desecration of a monument in Vadhu Budruk on December 29, followed by the riots in Koregaon-Bhima that left one dead on January 1, and the ‘Maharashtra Shutdown’ that killed one minor boy and left a trail of destruction across the state.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar said he and other leaders called on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding the arrest and prosecution of Shivjagar Pratisthan President Sambhaji Bhide Guruji and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti President Milind Ekbote, against whom complaints have been lodged by Pune Police.

He said Fadnavis told them that he had requested the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court to nominate a judge for the promised judicial enquiry into the entire episode.

“We have demanded that the probe commission should be given enhanced powers to even recommend punishment to those found guilty. This is the first time an enquiry commission shall be bestowed with such powers,” Ambedkar said.

Taking exception to the apex court holding the NJAC “unconstitutional” and favouring restoration of the collegium system, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said he is willing to “find a way out” if there is political unanimity over the government having a say in the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

Prasad was replying to a lively debate in the Lok Sabha on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2017, which seeks to revise salary and pensions of these judges. The House later passed the bill by a voice vote even as many members who took part in the debate demanded hike in their salaries.

Replying to several points raised by the members, Prasad and said he was “a great supporter” of the proposed All India Judicial Service” on the lines of Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service.

Expressing his anguish at the Supreme Court stating in its judgement on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) that because the Law Minister was its member, he might not act impartially in cases against the government, he argued the Minister was appointed by the same Prime Minister who had a say in deciding key appointments like those of the President, Vice President and the Lok Sabha Speaker.

He pointed out that the collegium system came in 1993 and the Law Minister used to be part of the selection process before that, adding that “some of the finest judges were appointed” then. He also cited the case of the jailed Calcutta High Court judge C.S. Karnan as an instance of how the collegium had erred. “When I examined files, it (the collegium) said he was well-versed in law.”

“That ‘the Law Minister is involved’ is not a fair conclusion. I leave it to the House. If the polity decides to speak in one voice, we will find a way out,” he said.

As members expressed their support, Prasad said he was getting a sense of the House.

During the debate, several members also spoke about the encroachment of the legislature’s powers.

Trinamool Congress’ Kalyan Banerjee said MPs across the political spectrum should approach the Supreme Court and convey that “it is not your function” to legislate. He said he apprehended that “after five, ten or 15 years there will be a direct conflict between the parliament and judiciary unless the practice is stopped”.

Prasad said that with the debate, “a very powerful message has gone today” and it related to concern about middlemen, occasional instances of lack of probity and more rigorous standards of transparency.

Stressing that the government should not interfere in the working of judiciary, he however said: “I would like to convey to courts in India that if the principle of separation of power is there for us, it is also there for the judiciary to follow.”

He agreed that there should be representation of various sections in judiciary.

Answering questions about Memorandum of Procedure for appointments to higher judiciary, he said: “What we are saying is a greater scrutiny is required so that you may not have to send a sitting judge to jail again.”

Prasad said there were 5,984 vacancies in lower courts and 129 recommendations concerning appointments in high courts were under process, while tThere were six vacancies in the Supreme Court and nine high courts have acting Chief Justices.

On demands of some members that proceedings of the apex court should be telecast live, he said these matters should be left to judiciary and “the day Supreme Court tells us that they want live telecast of proceedings, we will giver everything required”.

Caste violence of Maharashtra, which erupted in Bhima-Koregaon of the state, spread on Thursday to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh where more than 10 buses and other vehicles were set ablaze during a bandh called by two Dalit organisations, police said.

The vandalism and arson was reported from Burhanpur district in the state where two organisations were taking out rallies during the bandh called to protest against the attacks on Dalits in Maharashtra. The police later arrested eight of the protesters.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rakesh Sagar told IANS that as some protesters were returning after submitting their memorandum to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), they saw some buses standing on the roadside.

They first vandalised the buses and some other vehicles and then set those on fire, Sagar said.

During the violence in Bhima-Koregaon near Pune, one Dalit youth was also killed when the activists of Hindu Ekta Mahasabha allegedly attacked a gathering.

On January 1 every year, Dalits and Bahujans assemble there to commemorate the anniversary of the Koregaon Battle of 1818, in which the British Bombay Native Infantry, comprising mostly Mahar Dalit soldiers, had defeated the Peshwa army.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the centre of excluding the state’s tableau from this year’s Republic Day parade, alleging it was opposed to the state’s theme of the artist’s unity.

“This year Delhi did not allow our tableau. We planned to bring different form of folk artistes like the street artistes, Bauls, Sufi singers and Fakirs on the same platform for this year’s Republic Day tableau. But they (the centre) could not accept that,” she said after inaugurating Kenduli Mela in Birbhum district.

“I believe treating everyone equally is my religion. Why should we divide on the basis of religion? Why would we differentiate between Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor?” she asked in a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Referring to a group of Bauls present at the meeting, Banerjee said the saffron colour only suits them who lead a life of salvation and not others who believe in divisiveness.

The Congress on Thursday alleged that Narendra Modi government is not serious of getting the triple talaq bill passed in Rajya Sabha and was running from debate, and its only policy was to “divide the society”.

Noting that the established tradition of Rajya Sabha is if any motion is left unfinished, it is taken up the next day for discussion from there, party leader Pramod Tiwari said: “When the House got adjourned yesterday (Wednesday), all the 18 opposition parties including Congress were demanding that there be voting on sending the bill to the Select Committee.”

“On Thursday they (the government) should have started the proceedings with triple talaq. They did not do it. BJP has neither the policy nor the intention to get the triple talaq bill passed in Parliament,” he told reporters here.

Tiwari said even BJP’s allies like the AIADMK, the Telugu Desam Party and other independent parties like the Biju Janata Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal are not with them on the issue.

The deadlock on the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha continued on Thursday with the government rejecting the opposition’s insistence on sending the bill to a Select Committee for detailed scrutiny.

With no agreement, the government placed the bill in the bottom in the list of business, which the opposition strongly objected to and demanded that its motions for referring the bill to a Select Committee be taken up immediately.

Senior Congress leader P. L. Punia alleged that the BJP and the RSS ignited violence in Maharashtra’s Pune district on January 1.

“The Maharashtra government failed to control the violence there. We demand immediate arrest of the two accused named in the FIR for allegedly instigating violence in Pune,” he said, asking why the government was protecting the accused linked to Hindutva outfits.

“We demand legal action against those who were trying to disturb harmony,” he said, adding that the violence was spreading to other states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he was happy that former Telecom Minister A. Raja stood vindicated in the 2G case.

“Many thanks for your letter… I am very happy that you stand vindicated in the 2G case. You and your family have suffered greatly in this process but all your friends are greatly relieved that truth has prevailed,” he said in a reply, dated January 2, to Raja’s December 26 letter.

In his letter, Raja, of the DMK, had said that he “understood the compulsions” that prevented the then Prime Minister from “openly supporting him”.

A special court on December 21 acquitted Raja and Kanimozhi of the DMK as well as businessmen and executives accused of bribery in the 2008 allocation of 2G telecom spectrum, a “scam” that allegedly contributed to the Congress-led UPA’s defeat in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Raja, in his letter to Manmohan Singh, said: “You will recall that I assured you several times that I had done nothing wrong but rather acted in national interest and I would prove this.

“I also understand the compulsions that prevented you from openly supporting me. Today, I stand vindicated.

“I hope you will acknowledge that I remained loyal and faithful to you – unlike some senior cabinet colleagues – and ensured that you did not suffer personal embarrassment in the trial proceedings.”

“Now that the truth about 2G is out in the open, perhaps you too could come forward in my support, which you could not earlier,” Raja said.

He noted that it was on this very day (December 26) a decade ago, he had written to the Prime Minister on the subject of issuance of new UAS licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum.

“Neither of us could have imagined the twists and turns in our political and personal lives over the next ten years. A few powerful individuals launched a propaganda machine, magnified a thousand times by a complicit and pliable media, and were able to mislead even Parliament and the apex judiciary.

“It cost you the UPA government, and it took seven years of my life, including fifteen months in jail,” he wrote.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat over the deaths of hundreds of cows in a shelter in the state.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh said he wrote to Modi and Bhagwat demanding that the deaths of cows in the country’s biggest shelter in Agar Malwa district’s Salariya village be probed and guilty be booked for murder.

State Congress chief Arun Yadav asked why are the people who give a free hand to cow vigilantes, who kill people caught with a single cow, silent on the deaths of so many cows.

Ajay Singh said he visited the shelter with Yadav on Tuesday and saw that many cows were in a bad condition. “The cows who had died had not been buried properly and dogs were feasting on the carcasses… It was a shameful sight.”

“To get votes, these people (in the Bharatiya Janata Party) do not shy away from calling the cow ‘gau mata’ (cow mother) and even ‘rashtra mata’ (mother of the nation) but once the votes are in, they forget everything.”

The two Congress leaders said that in the past three months, more than 400 cows have died at the shelter but the administration is accepting only 117 deaths.

The letter was sent to Bhagwat in Ujjain where the RSS chief is currently camping with some Bharatiya Janata Party members.

Bhagwat and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were both present at the foundation laying ceremony of this shelter, the letter said, adding Chouhan had even said the spot will be made a pilgrimage place of cows.