Kolkata: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) on Friday said it has sent a ₹ 100-crore defamation notice to BJP MP Maneka Gandhi for questioning the religious organisation over its upkeep of cows in its gaushalas (cowsheds).
An undated video of the former central minister has gone viral in which she could be heard making accusations against ISKCON.
"Today, we have sent a ₹ 100-crore defamation notice to Maneka Gandhi for levelling completely unfounded allegations against ISKCON," its vice-president Radharamn Das said in a statement.
Das in the statement added the organisation was “deeply pained by these defamatory, slanderous, and malicious accusations” and “will not leave any stone unturned in our pursuit of justice against the fallacious propaganda”.
Gandhi had recently gone viral for her remarks that the religious organisation is the "biggest cheat in the country which sells cows from its gaushalas to butchers".
She accused ISKCON of being the “biggest cheater in the country".
“They have several cow shelters and avail benefits from governments to run those cow shelters. They get lands and other facilities to run those cow shelters. I recently went to Anantpur Goshala (cow shelter) and I found not a single cow was dry. In the entire dairy, there was not a single calf, which means all have been sold to butchers...They say their entire life is dependent on milk…Probably no one has sold as many cattle to butchers as they did," she can be heard saying in the video.
ISKCON, which was set up by Srila Prabhupada in 1966, and is headquartered at Mayapur in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is a Hindu religious and spiritual order with a huge following across the world.
With inputs from PTI