'I eat beef, can somebody stop me?' Union minister Rijiju retorts to Naqvi's statement

Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju has described as “unpalatable” his colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s remarks that those who eat beef should go to Pakistan, and questioned whether anyone could stop him from eating beef.

Rijiju belongs to Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast, where beef is a staple in the diet of several states with large Christian populations. His remarks came four days after Naqvi, the minister of state for minority affairs, justified the ban on cow slaughter.

“I eat beef, I’m from Arunachal Pradesh, can somebody stop me? So let us not be touchy about somebody’s practices,” Rijiju said during a visit to Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, on Tuesday.

“This is a democratic country. Sometimes, some statements are made which are not palatable,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“If a Mizo Christian says that this is the land of Jesus, why should someone have a problem in Punjab or Haryana? We have to honour the sentiments of each place and each location,” Rijiju said.