Lumpy skin disease: Rajasthan BJP MLA comes with cow in tow to draw govt’s attention

Talking to The Indian Express, Rawat blamed the journalists who rushed towards him for quit exit of the cow. “When the Gau Mata came, you shoved all the cameras in her face. You all should also maintain some distance. I was anyways coming towards the gate to talk to journalists but I was crowded…”

He said he had allotted Rs 10 lakh from his MLA Fund towards relief for the cows but even half of that couldn’t effectively reach the needy farmers. “Due to the lumpy virus, lakhs of Gau Matas have lost their lives. There are a lot of farmers who earn their livelihood by selling milk. If someone’s all Gau Matas die, where will he go? So these (dead cows) should be counted and the farmers be given compensation,” he said.

Monday was not the first time that Rawat, currently in his second term as an MLA, took such a step to draw the government’s attention to an issue.

In January 2019, a month after Ashok Gehlot led Congress came to power, he reached the Assembly with a plough on his shoulder demanding the Congress government to fulfil its promise of waiving farm loans. In March 2020, he reached the Assembly with an electric pole on his shoulder to protest against steep electricity bills for farmers.

“We speak in Assembly, write letters, but even then we are not heard. So I got this idea in the morning, people around me told me that since the lumpy virus (is spreading), Gau Mata ko le chalo (take the cow along),” he said.

Rawat is also known for briefly acting in television serial ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ a few years ago. “We get a lot of people in Pushkar so they asked me to act and I too had an interest,” he said. As per Rawat himself, he played the character ‘Raja’ in four episodes of the series.

Rawat has a BA degree from Government College, Ajmer. He is married and has two sons. Rawat identifies agriculture as his occupation.