File photo of Kerela CM Pinarayi Vijayan
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Assembly will hold a special session on June 8 to discuss Centre’s notification on sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets.
The announcement came on Friday, a day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K Palaniswami over an IIT-Madras student being attacked for organising a beef party.
Expressing dismay over the assault on Sooraj, a research scholar, Vijayan asked Palaniswami to intervene and contain the situation.
“You would certainly agree that elite institution like IIT Madras is a place for high learning, open debates and discussions and the students irrespective of their background have the right of preference to their choice of food,” Vijayan wrote.
Earlier, he has decided to call a meeting of all chief ministers to fight the central government’s gazette notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter. Kerala has witnessed several protests, beef festivals, opposing what many call a “blanket ban” on cattle sale.
The chief minister dubbed the notification as an encroachment on the rights of the state, democracy and federalism.
Vijayan had said it was an overreach by the Centre and the state will challenge it legally without allowing a ban on beef through such backdoor policies.
“LDF has an uncompromising stand on this issue. We will not compromise on this matter at any stage.The livelihood of thousands of people will be lost. What right does a government have to say that you cannot have a particular food? They are trying to impose their idea which is not good in a democratic country. RSS is taking the country in a dangerous direction,” Pinarayi Vijayan had said.
Vijayan, in a letter to the Prime Minister, urged him to repeal the newly imposed restrictions, so that the lives and livelihoods of millions of our fellow countrymen were protected, thereby also guarding the Fundamental principles of our constitution.