New Delhi: After championing a ban on cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh, where he is chief minister, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Adityanath earlier this week said that the demand from Muslim clerics that the cow be named national animal and the country be brought under a uniform cow slaughter ban was “double standard.”“I have come to know that some maulanas have demanded that the cow be declared a national animal. The cow is already our mother and our bond with the cow spans beyond lifetimes. No formal declaration is required to define the relationship between a mother and her child,” Adityanath said at a government programme in Bijnor on June 1, according to Deccan Herald.Indian Express reported that he also claimed to have a problem with the fact that Muslim clerics had referred to the cow as an “animal” and claimed that those “who call the cow an animal also support cow slaughter.”Adityanath also cautioned clerics, asking them to discourage cow slaughter within their community.Deccan Herald quoted him as having said, “On one hand you [clerics] encourage cow slaughter and on the other you demand that cows be declared a national animal; this is double standard.”“Strict action will be taken against cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh,” he also added.In a column on Deccan Chronicle, Aakar Patel notes how the head of the largest body of clerics, Jamiat Ulma-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani, said Muslims would have no objection to this, since it would stop the mob lynchings and political exploitation in the name of cows. There should be just one law, Madani had added, noting how laws related to animal slaughter are not equally applied in all states.A lion’s share of the violence by cow vigilantes or self-appointed ‘gau rakshaks’ targeting Muslims happens in north India, including in Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh.Former Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari has also notably backed the “national animal” idea.Ansari told Indian Express earlier this week, “I read in the news that there were some voices demanding that the cow be declared the national animal. I felt it was a very rational demand. Because if you can finish off the root cause of the problem, then that should be done.”Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali, a senior executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Chairman of the Islamic Centre of India, had also spoken for this.Several reports have noted that Article 48 of the Constitution encourages states to prohibit cow slaughter, it is only a Directive Principle and not binding law, and besides, it couches the encouragement in economic terms and not religious.Muslims historically accepted restrictions if openly framed as religious. Syed Muhammad Saadulla and Z.H. Lari did not oppose clarity on the issue. In fact, both argued that if the state intended to prohibit cow slaughter, it should say so openly and clearly rather than leave room for ambiguity, Hindustan Times notes in a report.