While the BJP has described Gehlot’s moves to woo Hindu voters as an “image makeover” which will have no impact on voters, the Congress believes it has dented the BJP’s Hindutva plank. Gehlot has visited several cow shelters and addressed meetings of Hindu ascetics.

Bovine politics is predominant in the southern Rajasthan districts of Alwar, Bharatpur and Dausa where allegations of cow smuggling are rife. In 2017, a cow trader Pehlu Khan was allegedly beaten to death by cow vigilantes in Behror in Alwar district. In March 2020, six accused were acquitted and the Rajasthan government has challenged the acquittal in the Rajasthan high court. On February 16, the burnt bodies of Junaid and Nasir were found inside a vehicle in Haryana’s Bhiwani, 160 km away from Piruka forest in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district from where they were kidnapped by cow vigilantes, who suspected them to be cow smugglers. The police have so far arrested four of the 21 accused named in the case.

But politically, there’s a battle of an entirely different level over cows. At one level, this has to do with credit.

According to state government officials, the Gehlot government has spent ₹3,000 crore on cow welfare as compared to ₹500 crore spent by the previous BJP government (2013-18) led by Vasundhara Raje, who set up the country’s first cow welfare department called, Gow Palan department. She imposed a 10% cess on stamp duty and 20% on the sale of liquor to be spent on cow conservation.

But Gehlot has staked claim to creating a cow welfare unit in Rajasthan and said that he set up a cow directorate in his previous tenure when he was in power and that the BJP just turned it into a department. His government now provides insurance cover of ₹40,000 for each registered cow under Mukhyamantri Kamdhenu Pashu Bima Yojan and has doubled the daily allocation per cow in shelters to ₹40, which, officials claim, is the highest among Hindi heartland states.

Alok Singhal, central secretary of Godham Pathmeda, a popular cow shelter in Sachore district, said the government has done good work for cow welfare. “We cannot underestimate any government work in serving the cows. For the past many years, the governments have been doing a good job.”

He said that in 2013, Gehlot announced grants for three months to registered Gaushalas. “It has now been increased to nine months. Besides, the opening of Nandi Shala at Panchayat Samiti level and announcement of Gaushala at gram panchayat level is a milestone step in serving cows,” he said. Singhal added that the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government created Gau Sewa Nidhi and made provision for a cow cess because of which cow shelters get adequate money from the state government.

In addition to what he has done for cows, Gehlot has sanctioned ₹100 crore each for the development and renovation of prominent temples such as Govind Dev ji temple in Jaipur and Baneshwar Dham in Dungarpur district.

Rajasthan’s Devasthan department, which monitors close to 59,000 Hindu religious centres in the state, now conducts regular programmes in many of them and Gehlot has increased the monthly honorarium for the temple priests from ₹3000 to ₹5000 (in five years), officials said.

The BJP is, however, not impressed and its former MLA, Vasudev Devnani, said all this is a “drama” enacted by Gehlot. “They (Congress leaders) have done this drama of being Hindus by going to the temple and wearing janeu (sacred thread worn by Brahmin men) but people rejected them. In Gehlot’s rule, over two dozen priests either committed suicide or were murdered,” he said, while accusing the government of not allowing people to take out religious processions on Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. The government had denied permission citing the possibility of communal violence, police officers said.

Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi accused the BJP of hijacking the Hindu religion. “Who are they to give certificates and decide who is and who is not a Hindu? The BJP has always tried to set a false narrative against Congress. Our government has worked for all sections of the society and work for cows and temples is part of the Devasthan department – we believe in work, where the BJP only talks.”

Political analyst Narayan Bareth said Gehlot has tried to counter BJPs hardcore Hindutva through cow welfare and temple work as its ‘Soft Hindutva’ pitch. “The Congress tried soft Hindutva when Rahul Gandhi visited temples during the 2017 Gujarat elections and it worked for the party as the party managed to narrow down the seat difference. Gehlot has taken it forward in Rajasthan.”

BJP, the opposition power now in Rajasthan is struggling enough to take over Congress by dint of ‘Harder Hindutva’ promising to set Hindu life line out of the slavery imposed by the ruling Congress Party with a severe mode of  ‘Muslim Appeasement’.

But, it is a draw back that the BJP in the central has failed to implement the Rashtriya Gokul Mission at its best in Rajasthan which has turned down the public aspiration for the same as well.

__Inputs from HT.