BJP calls hartal in Kerala village to shut down beef stalls, CPI (M) holds parallel beef fest

BJP has been protesting against beef stalls in Nallila market area for the last several months.

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In the first open protest by BJP against beef sale in Kerala, a village of Kollam district took centrestage on Friday.

The local BJP unit called a hartal demanding shutdown of beef stalls at Nedumpana grama panchayat area.

Countering the BJP protest, CPI (M) and its youth wing DYFI distributed beef curry across the panchayat and held a beef fest. A large number of people participated in it.

BJP has been protesting against beef stalls in Nallila market area for the last several months. The hartal was the latest in the series.

“The BJP is trying to implement the Sangh parivar agenda because they have chosen this area which is thickly populated by people of minority communities. They are currently on a test case to spark communal violence with an intention to spread it to other areas also. There have never been such communal issues in the area. The BJP has held the hartal in Nallila alone, and not the entire Nedumpana panchayat, focusing on the minorities there,” Deccan Chronicle quotes Nallila Panchayat ward member Thomas Koshy as saying.

However, BJP alleged that they had lodged complaints with panchayat and police regarding the illegal functioning of the beef stalls. They claimed that the beef stalls at the market were functioning without proper licence or permits. BJP leaders said neither panchayat nor the police took any action based on their complaint which prompted them to go for a hartal.

The CPI (M)-DYFI workers alleged that BJP’s hartal was designed to cause communal unrest.

Though there have been beef fests held in Kerala protesting against Sangh Parivar policy, the Kerala BJP has never come up with an anti-beef policy in the state. Moreover many of the state BJP leaders have openly said that they don’t support Sangh parivar policy of beef ban in Kerala.