The cow protection group cow has postponed the visit to the state after it was not permitted to land at the Umroi airport to proceed to Shillong and hold a yatra.
However, the group led by Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati decided to move the Supreme Court against the Meghalaya government and the Airports Authority of India for denying permission to land at Umroi airport.
The group had planned to hold a rally in Shillong to seek declaration of the cow as the ‘mother of the nation’ and a cow slaughter-free India. However, they were stopped from boarding a flight to Umroi at Agartala airport and had to take the flight to Guwahati.
“We want a written letter. On what basis are they stopping Shankaracharya? Tell us the reason why they are stopping us? Only DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation can do this. Neither the airport of Shillong nor Agartala is authorized. We will file a case in The Supreme Court. They are doing illegal things,” the coordinator of the group said over the phone.
Yesterday the State government had directed the airport authority to deny landing permission of the chartered flight carrying the seer anticipating breakdown of law and order. Section 163 BNSS was also clamped by the Ri Bhoi district magistrate to prevent the group, who had not sought permission, from holding the rally.
Inside the chartered flight from Agartala to Guwahati, the Shankaracharya hoisted the Gau Pratishtha flag over the ‘Meghalaya sky’.
In a statement, the cow protection group said, “Shankaracharya Ji Maharaj as soon as he reached the sky of Meghalaya as per his resolution and conveyed his determination for cow protection to the Meghalaya government and those who protested. In other states, we could only hoist the flag at 21 feet, but in Meghalaya, you gave us the opportunity to hoist the flag at 21,000 feet. We will soon make our schedule of visiting Meghalaya public, we will definitely come and communicate with our relatives and discuss the message of Gaupratishtha with the sensitive people of Meghalaya.”
Meanwhile, for the second straight day, members of various pressure groups gathered at the Umroi Airport to protest the planned visit of the cow protection group.
Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) general secretary, Donald V Thabah said that there is an ulterior motive on the part of the cow protection group to suddenly visit all the Northeastern states to advocate cow slaughtering or eating of beef should be banned.
“This is peculiar because this had never happened in the past,” Thabah said.
He said Meghalaya is the number one beef consuming state in the country and people depend on beef as staple food, apart from rice.
Thabah said the movement led by the group is an infringement on the citizens’ food habits and their culture. “We are a Christian dominated state and tribal dominated and we will never try to impose on people from other faiths, like forcing a Hindu to eat beef or a Muslim to eat pork,” he said.
Stating that people from the region as well as Meghalaya will never sit at the same table with a Hindu if one is not eating beef, out of respect to their beliefs.
He also said that the seer should understand that in a secular country everyone has the right to eat what they want.
He also lauded the government of Nagaland for taking a strong stance standing by its people preventing the cow protection group from going to that state to impose something, which is not acceptable.
“The government (of Meghalaya) should show its spine to block such people who are coming to the state to impose their culture on us,” the KSU general secretary added.
