Nobody should eat meat as it is not good for health: Lalu Prasad

Says those who eat meat are not civilised

Amidst outrage over the lynching of a man in Uttar Pradesh over allegedly eating beef, RJD president Lalu Prasad today stoked a controversy saying Hindus too eat beef and accused BJP and RSS of communalising the issue, triggering a sharp response from BJP which said he had lost his mind.

Prasad, however, said that beef does not mean 'gomans' (cow meat) and those who eat meat do not differentiate between 'gomans' and goat meat.

He also said that those who eat meat are not civilised.

"Those who eat meat are not sabhya (civilised) people. Poor people eat meat to beat their hunger... Those who go outside (the country) eat beef. Even Hindus eat beef. There is no difference between beef and goat meat," he told reporters before embarking upon an election tour.

Lalu who has turned a vegetarian after being a non-vegetarian, advocated that "nobody should eat meat as it is not good for health".

On the killing of a Muslim in Bishada village in Greater Noida on rumours of beef eating, the RJD chief said, "RSS-BJP is trying to communalise the issue, but they will not be successful in their design."

Reacting sharply to his comments, BJP leader and Union Minister of State Giriraj Singh asked the RJD chief to take back his words failing which he (minister) would launch agitation against it from his residence.

"Lalu baura gaye hain. Hindu gaupalak kabhi gai nahi khate. Vote ke liye Hindu ko badnaam naa karen. Shabd wapis len nahi to unke ghar se andolan shuru kar dunga (Lalu has no control over his sense. Hindus, who rear cows, never eat beef. He should take back his words or I'll start agitation from Prasad's residence)," Singh said in his tweet.

Prasad is already mired in controversy over his forward-backward casteist remark at an election meeting recently in Raghopur Assembly constituency from where his son Tejaswi Yadav is in the fray.

The Election Commission had taken note of it and asked him to explain his stand in making the statement on or before 3 pm of October 6, failing which the Commission would take a decision without further reference.