For once, politicians in Kerala cutting across party lines are standing together. The issue? The storming of the Kerala House in New Delhi by over a dozen policemen after a fringe right-wing outfit tipped them off about the house canteen serving a dish made of cow meat.
The call was received by the police control room around 4.15 PM, and the caller, Vishnu Gupta, claiming to be from the Hindu Sena, told the police that beef was being served at Kerala House, said a senior official.
The policemen took no chance and the input was immediately passed on to Parliament Street police station, from where a team was sent to Kerala House to deal with any potential violence, said the official.
The team remained deployed there for several hours and had conversations with the officials posted there. They also informed them about the PCR call and later returned, assuring that "things were under control".
A Kerala House official told the Express, “Somebody has misled the police saying it was cow meat. So police came and spoke to the elected committee members who run the canteen. The members said they only served buffalo meat. The canteen buys the meat from NDMC authorised shops in Delhi.”
Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson categorically denied that cow meat was served at Kerala Bhawan and said they will wait for "police action" in the wake of their complaint over the incident.
"I totally deny that cow meat was served here (canteen of Kerala House). Only buffalo meat is served," Thomson told reporters.
Some reports say the Kerala House has stopped serving buffalo meat for now (see photo below).
Condemning the actions of the Delhi Police, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy commented, "Kerala house is not a private hotel; it is a government establishment. Many ministers, bureaucrats and others live in Kerala house. The police should not have just entered and raided. They should have followed some procedure. I condemn the raids."
Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan went on to say, "The same forces that killed Mohammed Akhlaq have entered the kitchen of the Kerala House. Tomorrow they will forcibly enter every kitchen in our country.”
Noting that the Resident Commissioner of Kerala House has lodged a police complaint, Thomson further said, "we will wait for police action".
"I was told that some persons gate-crashed into Kerala House yesterday, the police had also entered. The resident commissioner has made a complaint to the DCP over their (gate-crashers') entry. We will wait for the police's action now,"
he said.
The Delhi Police, though, defended its role in the entire fiasco.
"We dealt with the matter with necessary alertness and took our position. The objective was to ensure that law and order is not disrupted," said DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal.
A senior police official said that the police were not concerned about whether the said meat is served at the aforementioned place, as that doesn't constitute any criminal offence in Delhi.
