Bangalore, Sept 14 (DHNS): Home Minister V S Acharya has defended remarks made by BJP ministers recently regarding the anti-cow slaughter bill.

The Bill has been passed by the primary institution - Karnataka Legislature - which represents the State’s six crore people, he said.

“If anyone feels the Bill is unconstitutional, it is his/her personal opinion,” he told reporters in Bangalore on Monday.

The minister was reacting to Governor H R Bhardwaj’s comment criticising BJP ministers for their remarks on his refusal to give his assent to the Bill.

The Governor had said he understood the holiness of cow better than any ministers in the Cabinet, as he was a Brahmin and alleged that ministers were crossing their limits by criticising him.

The Home Minister observed that there was nothing new in the State Legislature passing the Bill. Similar bills have been passed by seven states in the past and the same had been upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005.

The minister recounted that the Maharaja of Mysore, during the merger of the Mysore province with India in 1948, had enlisted eight conditions which included the total ban on cow slaughter before the Government of India. The Centre had fulfiled the condition, however, later it was annulled by a court judgement in 1958.

The Mysore state brought in a Bill on the basis of 1958-judgement in 1964. Karnataka drafted a new Bill, as the Supreme Court in 2005 upheld a more stringent Bill passed by the Gujarat government, he added.