NEW DELHI: On the first day in his new office as tourism minister, bureaucrat-turned-politician Alphons Kannanthanam touched upon the controversial issue of beef, saying it would continue to be consumed in Kerala.
Talking to PTI, the 1979 Kerala cadre IAS officer said that the BJP had never said that beef cannot be eaten.
“As Goa chief minister, Manohar Parrikar has said that beef will be consumed in the state. Similarly, it will be consumed in Kerala,” he said.
“The BJP does not mandate that beef cannot be eaten. We don’t dictate food habits in any place. It is for the people to decide,” he said.
Kannanthanam said if a BJP-ruled state like Goa was eating beef, there should be no problem in Kerela.
He later told a TV channel that he act could be a bridge between the Christian community and the BJP.
Addressing some of the concerns that were raised by the Christian community about the BJP in the past, Kannanthanam said it was mere propaganda.
