Osmania beef festival becomes flashpoint between students, right-wing Hindu groups

Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh Lodh too led a delegation of BJP, VHP and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and submitted two memorandums to Principal Secretary Ranjeev J Acharya, who can also be in-cost vice-chancellor of Osmania University.

However, some Leftist students organisations have declared that they will hold Beef festival on Osmania University campus on December 10 to protest against the ban on slaughter of cow. He alleged that Kishan Reddy was not extending any cooperation to party leaders like Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, Dr K Laxman, Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy and NVVS Prabhakar and others. “As GHMC polls are nearing, it would be better for the central party to remove Kishan Reddy, or else the party may not put up an impressive show in the city”, the MLA said. He, however, refused to divulge the contents of the letter.

Asserting that he was prepared to do anything for protection of the Cow, Raja Singh said they have the right to stop cow killers.

Osmania University, the varsity which has witnessed several historic political struggles since its inception, has once again become a flashpoint of a possible bitter face-off between its students and some right-wing Hindu organisations over a beef festival scheduled for December 10.

However, when asked about the specific charge of Mr Singh that he was supporting the beef festival, Mr Kishan Reddy said, “When the media asked me whether BJP was going to stall the beef festival in OU I merely said that we were not going to do that, the BJP is not going to object if someone eats beef”. The organisers of Beef Festival said that the BJP MLA has been trying to create a controversy over conduct of Beef Festival in the OU campus. “We hope to draw general public also for the fest”, said B. Sudarshan, one of the organisers.

The BJP MLA mounted a scathing attack on Kishan Reddy for his remarks on beef eating and demanding him to withdraw the statement and offer an open apology to the Hindus.