Indian voters boot out cow, happiness ministers

NEW DELHI: India’s only dedicated “cow minister” has been dumped in state elections, ending a controversial tenure that saw hundreds of the sacred animals starve to death and poisoned on his watch.

Otaram Dewasi, the first head of Rajasthan´s cow ministry, was turfed out Tuesday when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was thumped in the western desert state and two other key regional polls.

He was not the only noteworthy casualty from India´s ruling party, with the country´s only “happiness minister”, who stands accused of murder, also tossed aside by voters in central Madhya Pradesh state.

Dewasi, the cow minister who in office wore the red turban and white sarong of a desert herdsman, lost by 10,000 votes to an independent candidate.

Hindus consider cows sacred and the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has campaigned for their protection at state and national levels, and introduced harsh penalties for mistreating them. But the cause has spawned cow vigilantism in parts of India, with people accused of carrying beef or slaughtering the animals — especially Muslims and low-caste Hindus, who consume beef — murdered by mobs.

Rajasthan, bordering Pakistan, has witnessed some of the most high-profile cow lynchings in recent times, including the brazen beating to death of a Muslim dairy farmer on a busy highway last year.