Irked PMO seeks MHA report on Kerala House

The incident triggered a political slugfest with the government facing heat for brow-beating opposition-led state governments. 

Sources said, “The PMO indicating its displeasure to the Home ministry said the matter could have been handled better and settled by getting in touch with the Resident Commissioner of Kerala. It unnecessarily went out of proportion”.

Following the general outcry, Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta was on Wednesday arrested for filing a false complaint that beef was being served at the Kerala House. Gupta had earlier been detained and taken to the Parliament Street police station, said a police official. 

“Gupta was on our radar over several cases,” said the official. Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had earlier in the day said action was likely against Gupta under Section 182 of the IPC, which relates to providing false information with an intent to cause a public servant to use his lawful power to cause injury to another person. The Delhi Police on Wednesday submitted a report on their action to the Home Ministry.

Maintaining that the Delhi police action on Monday had strained the Centre-state relations, the Kerala Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday discussed the matter and decided to take a legal action if the Centre stuck to the explanation given by the Delhi police that “they only did their duty and carried out an inspection in accordance with the law.”

“The raid conducted without the permission of state officials at the state-run official guesthouse crossed all limits of propriety, violated law and also affected Centre-state relations,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said after the meeting in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The version of the Delhi police on the raid was “not at all acceptable to the state and we are waiting for the reply to the letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue. Kerala will take a legal action if the reply from the Centre also corroborates with the stand taken by the Delhi Police on the matter,” said Chandy. He asserted that cow meat, banned in Delhi, was not served at the Kerala House. “But, buffalo meat, which is not banned, will be served from Wednesday itself no matter who opposes it,” he added.

In fact Kerala House served buffalo meat for lunch on Wednesday and it was sold out in 45 minutes. The “sold out” tag quietly came up on the menu board much to the dismay of many who had thronged the eatery. A menu board in English placed at the counter of the canteen announced that ‘meat fry’ and ‘meat curry’, with ‘buffalo’ mentioned in brackets. “We are serving buffalo meat today and we have been offering only buffalo meat in the past as well. There is no truth in the allegations that cow meat is served here,” said Sudeesh, a member of the Staff Canteen Managing Committee.