ISKCON sends Rs 100-crore defamation notice to Maneka Gandhi

ISKCON on Friday said it has sent a Rs 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 the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). "Today, we have sent a Rs 100-crore defamation notice to Maneka Gandhi for levelling completely unfounded allegations against ISKCON," its vice-president Radharamn Das said in a statement.

Stating that the worldwide community of ISKCON devotees, supporters and well-wishers are deeply pained by the allegations, he termed these as "malicious accusations".

In a video which went viral recently, Maneka Gandhi charged that the ISKCON establishes gaushalas and earns unlimited benefits for the same from the government, in the form of huge lands.

"ISKCON is selling all its cows to the butchers and no one else does this more than them. They are the ones who roam on the road chanting 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' and say their entire life is dependent on milk," Gandhi, an animal rights activist, said in the purported video. "I recently visited their Anantapur Gaushala (in Andhra Pradesh) and did not find even a single cow in good condition there...There were no calves in the gaushala, which means all of them were sold off," Gandhi alleged.