Amid outrage over the lynching of a man in Uttar Pradesh following rumours that he and his family were storing and eating beef, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Saturday stoked a controversy by saying that Hindus also eat beef and accused the BJP of “communalising” the issue.
Reacting to the Dadri incident, Lalu said: “Poor people eat meat to beat their hunger… Those who go outside (the country) eat beef. Even Hindus eat beef. There is no difference between beef and goat meat… A Muslim was falsely accused in Dadri,” he said.
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The RJD chief further said that those who eat meat don’t differentiate between mutton and beef.
Lalu, however, tried to lower pitch of his statement by adding: “Eating meat or beef is not good. Eating meat causes diseases.”
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Reacting to his remaks, BJP leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh tweeted that Lalu had “gone off his mind”.
Singh also claimed that no one who keeps cows eats beef. He added that Lalu had been defaming Hindus for the sake of votes, and threatened to start a protest from his house if the RJD chief doesn’t take back his words.
Prasad is already mired in controversy over an allegedly casteist remark at an election meeting recently in Raghopur Assembly constituency, from where his son Tejaswi Yadav is contesting.
With PTI inputs
