Cattle ban: Cong attacks Centre, says even BJP leaders eat beef

Training their guns on the Centre for banning the sale of cattle for slaughter across the country's livestock markets, the Congress on Tuesday alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have earlier accepted that they consume beef too.

"The beef issue has been initiated by BJP and not by the opposition. We have many a time put forward our petition requesting the government to completely ban cattle slaughter in Manipur and Goa too but it was never taken into consideration. Many of the BJP leaders have accepted that they consume beef- Is this not politics?," Congress leader Meem Afzal said told ANI.

He further warned the Centre to not take any arbitrary measure towards the country.

Resonating similar views, another Congress leader Madhu Goud Yaskhi stated that the grand old party had never turned the cow into a political issue.

"Even when the Congress was in power, the government never made such statements nor amended them. The grand old party never made cow a political issue nor on the eating habits of the people," Yaskhi told ANI.

Earlier, criticizing the Centre's order, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that he didn't need a "lesson in food habits from New Delhi or Nagpur."

"Those sitting in Nagpur and Delhi cannot decide the food habits of Malayalis," he said.

Protesting against Centre's new norm, Students' Federation of India (SFI) organized a beef festival earlier on May 27 in Kerala by eating beef outside University College, Trivandrum.

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan had on Friday ordered that the ministry has notified the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 to ensure that the sale of cattle is not meant for slaughter purposes.

He said the seller and buyer both have to ensure that the cattle is not being bought or sold in the market for slaughter purposes.