Rahul Gandhi 'strongly condemns' cow slaughter in Kerala by party workers

NEW DELHI: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday condemned the public slaughter of a calf in Kerala by Youth Congress workers and said the party did not not support it.
"What happened in Kerala yesterday is thoughtless, barbaric and completely unacceptable to me and the Congress Party. I strongly condemn the incident," Rahul said in a tweet.

On Friday, political parties in Kerala and their youth wings took out marches and organised beef fests to protest against the Centre's decision to ban sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter.In one such act of dissent that was caught on video, Youth Congress activists slaughtered a calf in broad daylight, cooked its meat and distributed it.
Beef is widely consumed in Kerala and the Centre's blanket ban on it has caused widespread outrage.
"We will eat beef to show our protest against the central government. We want to tell this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said DYFI national president Mohammed Riyaz, who led the protest on Saturday.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan reproached the government for imposing the edict without consulting with states first and called it an "intrusion" into the rights of the state.
But Saturday's slaughter seems to have backfired on the protesters, as top politicians united across party lines to criticise the act.
"Cruelty at its peak. Cattle slaughtering by Kerala Youth Congress leader in broad daylight, in front of public gathering," BJP's Kerala unit chief Kummanam Rajashekharan tweeted on Saturday.
"It is a thoughtless act and it will only help Sangh Parivar outfits. It is sad that Youth Congress activists stooped so low for publicity," CPI(M) leader MB Rajesh said.
Police have registered a case against district president of Youth Congress and other Congress workers for slaughtering the calf.