CPM accuses Kerala of imposing RSS 'beef' agenda on police force

The nationwide furore over consumption of beef continued to stoke debates in beef-loving Kerala on Tuesday with CPM MP from Palakkad, M B Rajesh, taking on the Congress-led state government with charges of an “undeclared” ban on beef in canteens in the Kerala Police Academy in Thrissur.

Authorities of the police academy, however, said no instruction against serving beef in the canteens were in place.

Rajesh said in his official Facebook page that the ruling Congress had allowed a Sangh Parivar “agenda” to take over. “Beef has been taken off the menu in the academy for the past one and a half years.

An inspection of the purchase register will prove this. A decision to this effect was taken in the wake of the RSS’ anti-beef stance,” he said.

The MP also linked his charges to the police inaction on a threat issued against a unit of the government-run Meat Products of India over sale of beef, in Ernakulam.

“It’s shameful that the home minister is trying to impose the RSS agenda even on the police force,” Rajesh said in his Facebook post that has since spiralled into a message-trail political debate that also has its share of criticism against the MP for sensationalising “non-issues”.

Meanwhile, sources in the academy reacted strongly to the MP’s charges and dismissed it as baseless. A senior Academy official told Deccan Herald that no instructions were given against serving beef in five canteens — four for trainees and one for officers — run in the Academy premises.

 “The menu at the officers’ canteen never had beef in the first place. With regard to the other canteens, there has been no order or instruction restricting beef in the menu,” Jamaludheen A K, Assistant Director (Administration) in the Academy, said.