Days after Youth Congress workers brutally butchered a calf in broad day light at Kerala’s Kannur to protest against the Center’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle markets, a Congress MLA from the state has posted a video of consuming beef with friends to express solidarity with those who have been organising beef fest across the state.
VT Balram, the Congress MLA, in a Facebook post declared that he has left vegetarianism after 19 years to show resistance against what he says the Centre’s “beef politics.”
Many Hindus consider beef eating against their religious beliefs but the Congress MLA decided to not care about Hindu beliefs for scoring a political point. This is in line with what Youth Congress members had done when they killed a cow in full public view, which is not allowed even as per laws, to score a political point.
Then an embarrassed Congress had sought to distance itself, saying the party won’t support anyone who has violated the law (though they kept silent on hurting Hindu beliefs). Three Kerala Youth Congress leaders were suspended for their role in the slaughter and distribution of calf meat in Kannur.
Rijil Makkutty, the Youth Congress’s Kannur mandal president, who led the calf slaughter protest, however, maintains that he has no regrets. Makkutty said he had the approval of the Youth Congress state president Dean Kuriakose. Makkutty further claimed that Kerala Youth Congress president had raised no objection.
Now it remains to be seen if Congress will distance itself from the act of its MLA as well. Most probably the grand old party is not going to condemn the act or distance itself as no law was violated. So far as Hindu beliefs and sentiments are concerned, they apparently have no value in overall political strategy of Congress, which wants to appear more “secular” than Hindu.
