New Delhi: Former Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqui on Friday lashed out at Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over his ‘Muslims can live in this country, but will have to give up eating beef’ remark and said that the latter must not threaten any community.
Taking a jibe at Khattar, Farooqi asked whether the Muslims are living in the country with his permission. “He should know that he has been appointed as the Chief Minister under the Constitution. He must learn to respect the Constitution and must not threaten any community. He is not the one who decides who should live here or not,” he said. Congress leader Rashid Alvi also echoed similar sentiments on the issue and said Khattar has no right to continue as the Chief Minister.
“I want to ask what he has to say about no-Muslims who eat beef. I demand his resignation, if he does not resign then PM should dismiss him,” Alvi told ANI. Khattar courted a controversy with his statement that the Muslim community needs to give up consuming beef in order to continue living in India, since the cow is an ‘article of faith’ for the majority here. “They can be Muslim even after they stop eating beef, can’t they? It is written nowhere that Muslims have to eat beef, nor is it written anywhere in Christianity that they have to eat beef,” he told a leading national daily.
