On Monday evening, police officials paid a visit to Delhi’s iconic Kerala House near Jantar Mantar. Vishnu Gupta, a Hindu Sena leader, had called and complained that the canteen at the state guest house was serving beef, first reported The Indian Express .
The call was received by the police control room around 4.15 pm on Monday. The policemen took no chance and a team from the Parliament Street police station was immediately deployed to Kerala House, said an official. B ut the team did not collect any samples from the canteen.
However, the Kerala House said they served only buffalo meat and had named it “beef”. KG Joseph, a protocol officer at the State’s guest house said that the word ‘beef’ in the menu referred to buffalo meat. Consuming buffalo meat is legal in the Capital. The Kerala House officials were taken by surprise by the episode as the serving of buffalo meat, called beef in general terms, was a well known fact. The even source it from the meat from NDMC-authorised shops in Delhi.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state MP MB Rajesh have hit out at the Delhi Police for conducting a ‘beef raid’ at the Kerala House in the national capital. “Kerala House is a state guest house. I am yet to get complete details with regard to the incident. Whatever, Delhi Police should have shown restraint and consulted officials concerned before checking the premises for beef dishes,” the Kerala CM said at a press meet in Kozhikode, as per the New Indian Express .
The Delhi police have categorically denied that they had visited Kerala House acting on the claims made by Gupta. They claimed that the police team visited the place to ensure that there was no trouble caused by the right wing group. “We had intimated the authorities there on our way and have even provided more men to secure the premise,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal told The Hindu .
Kerala’s famed beef curry has been an annoying bone that has got stuck in the throat of the Sangh parivar. And, now, f ollowing the complaint and harassment faced by Kerala House officials, the state guest house has removed beef curry from its menu.
“I made a PCR call informing the police to act as the Kerala House on its menu listed Beef Fry as a dish. They were serving cow meat, but the police did not even inquire if the canteen served cow’s meat. The police did not even ask for a sample of the meat served in the canteen,” alleged Gupta, according to The Indian Express article .
Gupta had made the call over the following Facebook post by Kerala Vishva Hindu Parishad member Prateesh Vishwanath, a 34-year-old lawyer who is the chief architect of the BJP-SNDP Yogam Alliance:
This is the board in delhi kerala house .. Openly selling beef … Let us see
Posted by Pratheesh Viswanath on Monday, 26 October 2015
“Pratheesh told me he got to know of this from his Malayali friends in Delhi,” added Gupta.
Here’s what the politicians have to say about the gau-ernance :
Serving of buffalo meat in the capital is not a criminal offence. Not yet, at least.
But that hasn’t prevented people from smearing ink on people’s faces for daring to host a beef party. Several restaurants in Delhi now serve buffalo meat as tenderloin steak labelled as ‘beef’. Unlike in Kerala, slaughter and possession of cow, calf, bull and bullock are offences in Delhi, punishable with five years in jail and a fine.