On May 25th, 2017, the Congress party’s youth workers displayed distasteful acts of vindictive protest against the Centre banning sale for cattle slaughter. They somehow believed that slaughtering an innocent calf in public was a good way to express a difference of opinion. These “protests” evoked massive anger amongst the people of India. While the BJP condemned it by asking everyone to, ‘stand together against this inhumanity’, the CPI(M) expressed despair in their own way, “It is a thoughtless act and it will only help Sangh Parivar outfits”. The Congress party was not late with a response when their senior members condemned the youth workers and claimed to ‘suspended’ them. Rahul Gandhi even tweeted:
What happened in Kerala yesterday is thoughtless,barbaric& completely unacceptable to me &the Congress Party.I strongly condemn the incident
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 28, 2017
However, the Youth Congress leader in Kannur himself claimed that they had the approval of the state President to carry out the protest.
The protest was led by Rijil Makkutty and was one of the members to be “suspended” from the Indian Youth Congress.
Randeep Surjewala said at the time, “Such elements have no place in the Congress party”. But new images that have emerged after the Plenary session of Congress, suggest a different tale.
Dear @RahulGandhi u said person , who did calf slaughtered suspended .
Same person attended the Congress Session under ur leadership. Can u clarify th matter ??
This is real anti Hindu Congress. Cant stand with any Hindu cause . pic.twitter.com/8HHWwRYP6J
— Chintan Shah (@chintan20) March 19, 2018
Rijil Makkutty has been seen on numerous occasions at Congress meetings in Kerala and even hosted a wide range of them in Kerala. Below, is a poster where the ‘poster boy’ seems to be Mr Rahul Gandhi, who found Rijil’s action to be, “thoughtless, barbaric and completely unacceptable”. This is a recent poster from March 7th and was posted on Rijil’s Facebook page.
One wonders if this is indeed true, why is the same man in the party when Rahul Gandhi had explicitly mentioned that there was no place for such elements in the party?
This picture was posted on Rijil Makkutty’s Facebook account, less than three weeks after his “suspension”. He is seen presumably felicitating a new member of the Kerala Student Union, a Congress student wing.
He also posted this picture and wrote a paragraph on how “Brahmins too kill cows” and articulates how that justifies his despicable acts. This Facebook post is from 3rd June 2017, while his alleged suspension happened on May 28th, 2017, the day Rahul Gandhi tweeted about it.
Considering the Congress is trying to play the ‘soft Hindutva’ card, these images surfacing don’t bode well for the image Rahul Gandhi is attempting to make. Perhaps Rahul Gandhi should come out and answer that if indeed this member was suspended, why was he seen inducting new members days later, and why was he present at the Plenary session of Congress, as alleged.
