Yesterday, the nation woke up to the sad news of the death of Shaktiman, the police horse who was crippled by beatings during a violent BJP rally in Uttarakhand. Ten years after he joined the police force, the majestic white horse first lost his leg, and then his life to cruelty by humans.

A video showed BJP legislator Ganesh Joshi striking the horse. Predictably, Joshi claimed the video had been doctored, but he was arrested and then released on bail. Joshi said he is blameless and went as far as to add that if it could be proved that he was at fault then his leg should be cut off. That’s ridiculous. Joshi knows that nobody is actually going to cut off his leg.