Sadhvi's 'hang beef-eaters' remark has no religious issue: Parrikar

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday told the state assembly that Sadhvi Saraswati's controversial speech in Goa last month, where she said that beef-eaters should be hanged in public, did not contain any "religious sentiment".

In his written reply tabled on Wednesday during the ongoing monsoon session of the state assembly, Parrikar said that no FIRs were filed in connection with the speech because no complaint was received by the state police.

"The speech as reported, do(es) not have any issue of religious sentiment, nor has any complaint been received by police," Parrikar said replying to a question by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar.

Madhya Pradesh-based Sadhvi Saraswati, who was in Goa to attend a four-day All India Hindu Convention, had said that those who eat beef should be hanged in public.

"People who take eating beef as a status symbol, I request the Centre to hang them in public. People will then understand that cow protection is our responsibility," Saraswati had said.

Several legislators of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, including Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo, have in the recent past demanded that an FIR be filed against her for her "hate-speech".

Beef is popularly consumed by the state's Catholic and Muslim minorities, who account for nearly one-third of the coastal state's population.

However, to a question by Kavlekar, who sought to know the details of the action taken by the government against Sadhvi Saraswati as the "issue would spark communal hatred", Parrikar in his reply said: "No complaint has been lodged nor any religious matters were reported in media reports."