Hours after party vice-president Rahul Gandhi strongly condemned party’s youth unit workers slaughtering a cow in Kannur, Kerala, the Congress suspended workers who organised the protest event. After that, students at IIT-Madras held a beef festival inside the campus to protest against a central government rule that bans the sale of cows for slaughter at animal markets.
“Such elements have no place in Congress. Youth Congress workers have been suspended,” Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.
The Union ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had announced the decision to ban sale of cattle for slaughter in a gazette notification dated May 23. On Sunday, the Youth Congress activists allegedly killed the calf in full public view in an open vehicle in district Kannur of Kerala, inviting flak from all quarters including the top Congress leadership.
The AICC in-charge of communications, Randeep Surjewala, said such action by Congress workers was “completely unacceptable” and was “alien to civil society, our culture and founding principles”.
“Anybody who has done so will have no place in the party and that’s why the workers have been already suspended by the Youth Congress,” he said.
Whereas in Chennai, the protesting students belong to the Progressive Students’ Union of the IIT. A student leader, who did not wish to be identified, said it was a case of the BJP’s “imposition of its communal agenda on the masses”.
The AIADMK government has not formally responded to the new notification from the Union Environment Ministry, which comes under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and is applicable across India. Over the weekend, Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami said, “I can only respond after reading the full order. I cannot react to media reports”.
“It is a democratic right of ours to have a choice of food,” said Abhinav Surya, a final year student.
“There was no planning or anything. The idea was tossed around afternoon, and we asked all students to felt about the ban on cow slaughter to participate in the protest,” Abhinav added.
IIT authorities haven’t taken any action against the students. “There have been condemnation of our protest by some right-wing student body representatives. Some facebook posts have have derided us and our freedom to choose what we eat,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has questioned the silence of secular parties over Kerala’s beef festivals in protest against the Centre’s decision banning the sale of cattle for slaughter from open markets.
“I feel there is a lot of talk in the country to respect each other’s feelings and several organisations demand this in the name of secularism. But why are they silent on the Kerala incident?” he asked at a public felicitation function organised by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
