'Why holding a beef festival', asks Venkaiah Naidu

Mumbai, Feb 19: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu questioned the rationale behind holding a "beef festival", saying one could eat beef if one wanted, but there was no need to organise a festival for it.

"You want to eat beef, then eat. Why (a) festival? Similarly, a 'kiss festival'. If you wish to kiss, why do you need a festival or anyone's permission for it," he said.

Speaking at the platinum jubilee celebrations of R A Podar College of Commerce here, Naidu also hit out at those who raised slogans in support of Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru.

"Then you have Afzal Guru. People are chanting his name. What is happening? He tried to explode our Parliament," Naidu said. In July 2017, the students of IIT-Madras had held a "beef festival" on the campus to protest against the cattle-slaughter ban.

Similarly, an advisory was issued in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this month in connection with the death anniversaries of Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat. Bhat and Guru were hanged and buried inside New Delhi's Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984 and on February 9, 2013 respectively.

PTI