BJP, Sangh Parivar out to polarise Goa on beef issue: Faleiro

Panaji, April 17 (IANS) Statements by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy and a senior VHP official seeking ban on beef consumption in Goa are an attempt by the party to polarise the state's Hindu and Catholic communities, state Congress chief Luizinho Faleiro said on Monday.

"These people are making statements deliberately with a hidden agenda to polarise the people on communal lines and divide Goans," Faleiro said.

Faleiro's remarks came a day after VHP's central secretary Acharya Radhakrishna Manori said the Sangh Parivar outfit would impress upon the central government to impose a beef ban in Goa, where more than a third of the population comprises minorities who consume beef.

Beef-oriented cuisine also finds favour with a significant chunk of the hundreds of thousands of tourists, who visit the state every year.

Faleiro also said that by making such statements, an attempt was also being made to trigger an artificial shortage of beef in the state.

"Such statements are also part of a hidden agenda to create an artificial shortage of beef and then take a cut on the increased price of beef," he said.

Speaking to reporters in the south Goan town of Vasco on Sunday, VHP leader Manori had said: "If the government is unable to stop it (beef), we are capable of imposing a complete ban on cow slaughtering and beef eating across the country, including Goa."

Swamy, a BJP Rajya Sabha member, has also said that the beef-eating habit in Goa needed to be altered.