THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The BJP on Monday slammed a report doing the rounds on the internet that stated that the BJP would ban beef in Goa and certain other parts of India if voted to power at the center.
The report which was put up on a website, IndiaScoops.com, on April 26 claimed that BJP candidate in Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had made the statement during a campaign in Madhya Pradesh.
However, BJP spokesperson Damu Naik told “The Goan” that the report had “put words in her mouth. There is no authenticity to the report put out by this website,” he said.
“Goans have nothing to worry about,” he added, reminding that in the last five years under the Modi-led government, there had been no beef ban in Goa.
Further he stated that the BJP led government had not taken a policy decision in this regard, so any claims made that BJP would ban beef in Goa had no truth to them.
“We know that in certain areas, beef is a priority. We respect the sentiments of the people,” said Naik.
After "The Goan" contacted the editor of IndiaScoops.com, Flynn Remedios for comment, the website "updated the story" to add a disclaimer in bold that Sadhvi Pragya had made a statement to a “group of followers”, and not in front of the media or public.
"She never made these statements in public or in front of media persons, So it's not surprising that nobody else ran it," said Remedios.
It is unclear how the website then learnt of these statements.
