Beef' Back on Kerala House Menu After Day of Protests Over Delhi Police 'Raid'
New Delhi: Politics over beef found a new address today as the Kerala House in Delhi took buffalo meat off its menu after a "raid" by 20 policemen over a complaint from a fringe group.
After a day of protests against what many saw as bullying, Kerala House decided to bring back buffalo meat, sending a message that reinforced Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's strong words in a letter to the Prime Minister.
"I would like to inform you that the Kerala House staff canteen serves authentic vegetarian and non-vegetarian Kerala cuisine and the items in the menu are entirely within law," Mr Chandy wrote to PM Narendra Modi, accusing the Delhi Police of overstepping its brief.
On Monday evening, the official guest house of Kerala in the capital swarmed with policemen after a call from activists of the Hindu Sena group, who had visited the canteen and noticed "beef fry" scribbled in Malayalam on a handwritten menu.
Defending their alacrity in responding to the complaint, the police said they acted for the sake of law and order; the Hindu Sena was involved in an ink attack last week on Jammu and Kashmir lawmaker Engineer Rashid, over his beef party in Srinagar.
"We know no irregularities will take place at Kerala House, but it was our duty to investigate the matter since the complaint was on a serious issue... We had no option but to react very fast, as it could have been a situation which would lead to a communal flare up," said Delhi Police chief Bassi in the evening.
He added that if the Kerala House registers a complaint, "we will conduct an inquiry against the Hindu Sena men".
The canteen staff explained that it serves only buffalo meat, which is not illegal, even though the term "beef" is used.