KOCHI:The CPI(ML) Red Flag organised a beef festival here on Sunday to protest the alleged moves by the BJP government at the Centre to bring in a ban on beef. Political and cultural activists participated in the festival and the cultural meeting held in connection with the programme and questioned the scientific and social rationale of the campaign against beef.
Inaugurating the cultural meeting, veteran CPM leader M M Lawrence said that no government has the right to decide what people of a particular locality should eat or not to eat. It is not the love of cow or love of religion but a deliberate plan to create unrest and division in society that works behind pushing beef ban across the nation, he said.
“They want to create division, clashes and riots,” Lawrence alleged, “and to further consolidate their power in a deeply divided society, which is a dangerous trend.”
Taking the bull by the horns, environmentalist and writer M K Prasad, referred Vedas to cut the argument that Hindu tradition was against cow slaughter. “In Vedas the Brahmins used to be referred as ‘Gognahas’ or the guest who caused cow slaughter. In those times, it was a must to kill the best cow of the barn and cook it for the brahmin guests. Cow slaughter was part of the rituals of Yagas too. Sri Buddha also ate beef, whenever it was offered to him,” he said. There is no scientific basis for banning beef or cow slaughter. And the government that asks its people to shun beef also has the responsibility to provide them with alternative food that compensated the protein, nutrients they used to get from beef, he opined. CPI (ML) Red Flag district secretary Charles George presided.