People educated in missionary schools do not have familiarity with India’s culture and end up eating beef when they go abroad, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh said on Thursday, triggering a fresh controversy.

He also prescribed an antidote for this: the teaching of shlokas, or verses, from religious texts such as the Bhagwad Gita and the Hanuman Chalisa. “I would like to say to people present here, this practice should start from the private schools since at government-run ones, we run the risk of inviting accusations of imposing the bhagwa agenda,” the BJP leader said at a religious function at his Lok Sabha constituency, Begusarai.

Singh is no stranger to controversy. Recently, he has launched a tirade against people protesting against the controversial Citizenship Act, or CAA. He has trained his guns on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

At the event on Thursday, he said, “Convent-educated students go on to become IITians, DMs [district magistrates] and SPs . But a number of them indulge in practices such as eating beef in foreign countries due to the lack of familiarity with country’s culture and religious traditions.”

He also addressed a press conference on CAA, and described the protests against the legislation as “misguided”. He said the Congress, which is opposing the legislation, was guided by vote bank politics.