VARANASI: After returning from Prayagraj’s Magh Mela without taking a holy bath, Swami Avimukteshwaranand on Friday dared Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to prove himself a Hindu by giving the cow the status of ‘rajya mata’ (state mother) and banning beef export within 40 days. If this does not happen, then on March 11, all saints will gather in Lucknow and declare the CM a “fake Hindu”.“Stop wielding the stick on Sanatani Hindus and stop the export of beef immediately, or else on March 11 we will declare you a non-Hindu,” the seer dared the CM while talking to reporters at Shri Vidya Math. The seer also clarified that the administration has not offered any apology for its misconduct. “There is a way to apologise, but they (govt) tempted me, saying that they would shower flowers on me while bathing. I refused... Yogi should first prove himself to be a Hindu.”He said, “It seems that in independent India, protecting the mother cow and demanding a law banning cow slaughter has become the biggest crime. That is why, whenever anyone raised this voice, govts ruthlessly crushed them. The example is the 1966 cow protection movement in Delhi, where the then govt shot down countless cow devotees and inflicted various atrocities on prominent Sanatanis, including Dharmasamrat Swami Karpatri Ji Maharaj.”“And now, for raising the same voice, various kinds of atrocities and injustices are being inflicted on us and the cow devotees supporting us in this work, to the extent that proof of our being Shankaracharya is being demanded from us, and various attempts are being made to tarnish our image among the Sanatani public. Yogi Adityanath is leading all this through his trusted associates like Rambhadracharya and others,” said the seer.“Undeterred by this, we will firmly continue our resolve for cow protection along with all Sanatanis. Our message to Yogi Adityanath is — ‘You demanded our certificate; now the Chief Minister must provide proof of being a Hindu,'” he said, adding, “Adityanath Ji, you asked for a certificate of our position and tradition — we readily handed it over to you, because truth does not fear evidence. But now is not the time to take proof, but for you to give proof. The entire Sanatani society now demands evidence of your being a Hindu. Being Hindu is not limited to speeches or saffron; its test is cow service and protection of dharma.”The seer demanded two things from the govt: declare the cow ‘state mother’ and impose a complete ban on meat export. He cited Maharashtra’s move to declare indigenous cows ‘state mother’ and Nepal’s national animal status for cows, seeking similar honour for Uttar Pradesh. He also urged an immediate halt to all bovine meat exports from the state.He said that “Uttar Pradesh’s share in India’s total meat export is more than 40%”. All export data is recorded in the name of ‘buffalo meat’, but it is an open truth that, without DNA testing, cattle are being slaughtered and sent under the guise of this meat. There is a huge difference between the number of buffaloes in the state and the quantity of meat exported.