Goa govt not against beef, says BJP minister after party colleague alleges cow vigilante menace

The Goa government is not against beef consumption, state’s animal husbandry minister Mauvin Godinho said on Friday in the wake of allegations of threat to the beef trade in the state, especially from cow vigilantes.

Godinho said vested interests were trying to project that the BJP government was against eating the meat.

“Just because it is a BJP-led government, propaganda is being made that we are against meat eaters. It is totally a false allegation,” he said.

“We believe in carrying all the people with us and there is no objection in beef being consumed either by tourists or by the local people,” Godinho said.

Godinho, whose department overlooks government-run slaughterhouses, blamed “NGOs from outside the state” for disrupting the functioning of the government-run complex where animals are slaughtered.

Questioning his government over its failure to protect the legal beef trade, BJP MLA Michael Lobo had on Tuesday said in the assembly that cow vigilantes were standing at the border (of Karnataka) and blocking beef that is being brought in.

“Tourists who come to Goa, come to eat beef. For our feasts, there is a shortage of beef. There are people in Goa in large numbers, the Christian and Muslim community and others who eat beef. You cannot stop that,” Lobo had said.

Around 20 tonnes of beef is consumed in per day in Goa, which has 26% Christian and 11% Muslim population.

Minister Godinho, a former Congressman, was questioned by another BJP MLA Glenn Souza Ticlo over the failure of the government to get the slaughterhouses running, forcing the state to rely on meat that is slaughtered in neighbouring Karnataka, whose quality cannot be certified.