Randeep SurjewalaThiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: The Congress on Monday distanced itself from the public slaughter of a calf in Kerala by Youth Congress workers, saying those behind the incident have no place in the party and have been suspended.
Three Youth Congress workers – Kannur YC district president Rijil Makkutty and activists Joshi Kandathil and Sharafuddin -- were suspended both from the YC and the Congress, party sources in Thiruvananthapuram said.
The AICC in-charge of communications, Randeep Surjewala, said such an action by Congress workers was "completely unacceptable" and was "alien to the civil society, our culture and founding principles".
Read: 'Why are seculars silent on Kerala beef fests,' Yogi Adityanath wants to know
Kerala to call all-party meet on cattle slaughter law
"Anybody who has done so will have no place in the party and that's why the workers have been already suspended by the Youth Congress," he said.
"Such elements have no place in the Congress or in our culture. Indian culture is not to cause harm to any living being, much less to the holy cow which we all celebrate and revere," he also said.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had on Sunday condemned the butchering by some Youth Congress members to protest against the government's move to ban sale of bovines for slaughter.
Terming the incident as "thoughtless and barbaric", he said that it was "unacceptable" to him and his party.
"What happened in Kerala yesterday is thoughtless, barbaric and completely unacceptable to me and the Congress. I strongly condemn the incident," he tweeted on Sunday.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee interim president M.M. Hassan said in Thiruvananthapuram that the action had dented the Youth Congress' protest and the activists were suspended from the party.
Surjewala, however, asked whether the BJP would give a similar advise to BJP-ruled Goa and to its chief minister Manohar Parrikar, to Union minister Kiren Rijiju who has been "gloating" over similar incidents, or to other BJP-ruled states "where such incidents are common".
"We should rise above partisan politics and comprehensively condemn such incidents," he said.
Surjewala also raised the issue of attacks on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.
Kerala Police on Monday booked the three YC activists in connection with the case. The incident has drawn flak from various quarters.
