Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said that his government might roll out a special license which would allow foreigners to consume beef in the state legally.

After coming into power the Khattar-led BJP government passed a strong law which banned the sale, trafficking and slaughtering of cows, with rigorous imprisonment of three to 10 years for violations.

The proposed license will be similar to the lines of one issued by the government in Gujarat granting permission to foreign nationals to consume alcohol.

“If we have to work out some facility for them [foreigners] to be able to [consume beef]… we will do it. It could be a special licence… [as] whatever is licensed, no one can oppose [under] the law. Everyone has a personal lifestyle for eating and drinking, especially those who come from abroad … we don’t have any opposition to that. In fact, we are not opposing this for anyone,” Khattar was quoted saying in The Hindu.

In October, last year he had said Muslims can continue to live in this country, but they will have to give up eating beef because “the cow is an article of faith here”.

Slaughter of cow is banned in most of India; the consumption of their meat is also largely prohibited.

Only West Bengal, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim do not have any restrictions.