By Arka Mondal
New Delhi: Amid the protest, politics and the police move, 'beef' is expected to be served at the Kerala House canteen by noon today.
The 'beef raid' by 20 policemen at the Kerala House drew flak from various quarters with stalwarts lambasting the move by Delhi Police and Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee using twitter to condemn the moral policing by the Delhi law and order force.
Kerala House sources declared that they have decided to bring back 'carabeef' (buffalo meat) dish and serve it by Wednesday noon.
Meanwhile, condemning the initiative by the police, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy sent a strong worded letter to the Prime Minister asking him to look into the matter.
"I would like to inform you that the Kerala House staff canteen serves authentic vegetarian and non-vegetarian Kerala cuisine and the items in the menu are entirely within the law," Chandy mentioned in the letter Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister's Office seeking details of the Delhi Police action from the home ministry questioned why 'such a big team' of 20 policemen were deployed for the move.
Justifying the raid, Delhi Police chief Bassi said, the preventive measure had to be enforced owing to the 'reputation' of the complainant. Backing the move, Bassi further said, the police was stationed to prevent any kind of communal flare up.
"We know no irregularities will take place at Kerala House, but it was our duty to investigate the matter since the complaint was on a serious issue… We had no option but to react very fast, as it could have been a situation which would lead to a communal flare up," said Bassi on Tuesday evening.
Earlier on Monday evening, Kerala House had to welcome some unwanted guests as 20 policemen raided the canteen to check the presence of 'cow meat' following the complaint lodged by Hindu Sena men.
In defense, the police claimed that the move was a precautionary measure to stop any communal flare from brewing. Citing the incident involving Jammu and Kashmir lawmaker Engineer Rashid, the police defended themselves saying, they acted for the sake of law and order.
Mentioning that if the Kerala House registers a complaint, Bassi said, "we will conduct an inquiry against the Hindu Sena men".