Centre believes people have right to choose in democracy: KJ Alphons
![Alphons Kannanthanam, the new Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism talking to media as he take over charge of his office in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI) Alphons Kannanthanam, the new Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism talking to media as he take over charge of his office in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)](https://images.deccanchronicle.com/dc-Cover-bsnudco08r3igtj44duecnr7m4-20170910021738.Medi.jpeg)
New Delhi: Minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam on Saturday said the government’s stand is that people have a right to make their own choices, be it in terms of speech or their food.
“It is a democracy, it is the people who make choices, that is freedom. So in a democracy it is the people who decide what they should speak, what clothes they should wear and what kind of food they should eat and that exactly is the stand of the government,” Mr Kannanthanam said on the sidelines of an event, days after taking over as the new tourism minister.
On the first day in his new office, bureaucrat-turned- politician Mr Kannanthanam had touched upon the controversial issue of beef, saying it would continue to be consumed in Kerala.
Talking to a news agency the 1979 Kerala cadre officer had said that the BJP had never said that beef cannot be eaten.
A controversy had erupted following a notification banning the sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets in May.