Sadhvi Saraswati and Shantaram Naik

Panaji : If Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is serious about the sentiments of beef-eaters in Goa, he should get Sadhvi Saraswati arrested for her hate speech against beef consumers, state Congress President Shantaram Naik said on Thursday.

“He should first get issued an arrest warrant against Sadhvi Saraswati, who made a horrible statement in Goa in June last that a person eating beef should be brought to the crossroads and flogged, and his flesh exhibited in public place so that nobody dares to eat beef in Goa,” Naik told reporters here.

The Madhya Pradesh-based Sadhvi had come to Goa to deliver a speech at a Hindu conclave and said that beef-eaters should be hanged in public.

“Despite this statement, Parrikar could not get filed an FIR against her. All talk is useless till he gets issued an arrest warrant against the Sadhvi,” Naik said.

He was reacting to Parrikar’s assurance to Goa’s beef traders, who were on strike for four days to protest harassment by cow vigilantes and police.

On Wednesday, a day after these traders called off the strike, Parrikar said Goa Police will provide protection to consignments of beef coming from other states, provided their documents were in order, and take action against those who impede such transportation.

Goa’s Quraishi Meat Traders Association chief Manna Bepari told IANS on Thursday that beef supply to Goa from Karnataka after the strike ended was beginning to stabilise.

“There has been no untoward incident in the last two days,” Bepari said.

He said meat traders held a meeting with Animal Husbandry Minister Mauvin Godinho, as well as top officials of the Goa Meat Complex, the state’s only legal abattoir, who assured that the facility will be made operational within a week.

—IANS