Thiruvananthapuram: Protests continued to spread across Kerala on Sunday against the federal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s decision to ban beef trade across India.
Reflecting the widespread anger against the beef ban proposed by the BJP, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “Kerala’s diet need not be decided from Delhi or Nagpur”, in insinuating the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is controlling the reins of the BJP government in Delhi, from its headquarters in Nagpur.
“No one can alter the dietary habits of Keralites”, Vijayan said, adding that the state government would make arrangements so that people can continue to have their food choices.
On Saturday evening, one of the protests in the state took a different turn, with a group of Youth Congress workers slaughtering a young bull in public and then distributing beef to the public who gathered around. The incident happened in Kerala’s northern Kannur district.
This protest, however, earned criticism for its organisers from within the Congress and other political parties.
Youth Congress leader M. Liju said protests should keep to established decorum, adding that the protesters may have carried out such a public display owing to their young age.
Communist Party of India Marxist MP, M.B. Rajesh said the public slaughtering of a bull by Youth Congress workers would adversely affect the nationwide strike against the BJP government’s directive to ban beef.
CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan alleged that the beef ban was part of an agenda by the BJP government to bring back the caste system that divided the populace based on their castes. “Brahmin diet is being imposed on the people. This is not acceptable”, Balakrishnan said.
The CPM state secretary said the state government would consider new legislation with regard to the beef ban imposed by the federal government, and that the state government would confer with its counterparts in other states to counter the federal ban on beef consumption.
On social media, trolls continued to surface against the beef ban. One of them said on behalf of all Keralites, “Dear beef, we can’t live without you”, and another said “Parotta has been widowed”, playing on the fact that the flat bread parotta and beef make a popular combination for Malayali palettes, and beef will soon make an exit.
