Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has rejected the Delhi Police’s version of Monday’s ‘raid’ on Kerala House – for allegedly serving beef – and threatened to sue if it failed to apologise. Meanwhile, the canteen at the guesthouse – Kerala’s official State residence in the national capital – resumed serving meat on Wednesday.

The police raid, which grabbed headlines across the country and abroad, came up for discussion at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. At the customary press conference after the meeting, Chandy said the raid had crossed all limits of propriety and had also badly affected the Centre-State relationship.

He wanted the Delhi Police to “admit to its mistake”. The Opposition CPI(M), which has been accusing Chandy of under-hand dealings with the RSS in view of the upcoming local-body elections, had on Tuesday criticised him of being soft on the raid issue.

Chandy pointed out that the Delhi Police, controlled by the Central Government, had raided the guesthouse canteen violating all norms and without the consent of the State officials. It had happened even before the whereabouts of the complainant was verified, he alleged.

The Chief Minister pointed out that his government had complained to the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister and was awaiting their replies. If they stood by the Delhi Police version, the State Government would take legal recourse, he said.

Chandy said cow’s meat was not served at Kerala House as it was banned in Delhi. What was served was buffalo meat. He asserted that buffalo meat would continue to be served. He appreciated the support of Chief Ministers of Delhi and West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, on the issue.

Meanwhile, AN Radhakrishnan, General Secretary of the State unit of the BJP, alleged that the controversy was a “conspiracy” hatched by the CPI(M). “This is a CPI(M) ploy to confuse, and to create misunderstandings in the minds of people who will be voting in the November 2 and 5 local body elections,” Radhakrishnan told BusinessLine. “They blew up the issue out of proportion with the help of pro-CPI(M) media persons.” He claimed the incident was the outcome of a customer being roughed up by the canteen staff.

He claimed the CPI(M) was nervous because its cadre were joining the BJP, was muddying the waters with false issues.

Radhakrishnan was evasive when asked about the BJP’s stand on the demand by right-wing outfits that beef be banned in Kerala, where most people consume the meat. “Right now, beef is not banned in Kerala,” he said. “The party is now deeply involved in the ongoing electioneering and development is our main plank, not beef.”

After a day’s gap, and following the Kerala Government’s nod, the canteen at Kerala House resumed serving meat on Wednesday. However, in the menu card, the word ‘beef’ was replaced with ‘Meat Fry (Buffalo)’. A large number of Delhi-based Keralites and visiting politicians, including CPI(M) Politburo member MA Baby, visited the canteen and consumed the meat. – as a symbolic protest against the the raid.