Parrikar was advisor of trust with Muthalik links: NCP

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was an advisor of an anti-cow slaughter trust with links to Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, the NCP alleged Tuesday.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) vice president Trajano D'Mello provided documents that show Parrikar, publicly known to oppose Muthalik, was an advisor to the Akhil Vishwa Jai Shrirama Gosanvardhan Kendra.

D'Mello was addressing the media at the party's headquarters in Panaji.

The chief minister resigned from the trust last year, a month before the Kendra filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, which temporarily led to a ban on cattle slaughter.

The ban triggered a beef crisis in Goa, where more than a quarter of the population consumes the red meat.

"On the one hand, Parrikar and the BJP show they are against Muthalik, but secretly they are all connected. Parrikar was an advisor of this organisation, which precipitated a beef crisis in Goa and has links with Muthalik," D'Mello said.

The NCP spokesperson also said Muthalik was also in Goa in June last year and mingled with the trust members at an All India Hindu Convention in Ponda, 35 km from here.

D'Mello alleged the BJP had ulterior plans for Muthalik, with state president Prahlad Joshi almost inducting the Sri Rama Sene leader into the party last week.

Outcry at the news on TV channels and social media forced leaders, including Parrikar, to ask the party leadership to reconsider the Karnataka right-wing leader's entry into the BJP.

"This is the double face of the BJP, proved best by our very own chief minister," D'Mello said.

Sri Rama Sene is best known for its moral-police styled attacks on a pub in Mangalore where they beat up young men and women for following Western culture.

Muthalik has threatened that after the Lok Sabha polls, he would start Sri Ram Sene units in Goa, famed for its beach tourism and late-night party hotshots.