Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan on Thursday forcefully defended the right to consume non-vegetarian food while on a visit to Kashmir, a stand that resonated deeply in a region known for its ardent love of meat, even as it is likely to provoke strong resentment within the core Hindutva constituency.
Radhakrishnan, who rose through the RSS ranks, was addressing the 21st convocation of Kashmir University here.
The Vice-President’s strong advocacy for dietary freedom has come amid periodic tensions in the country over food choices.
Radhakrishnan recalled an event during his tenure as Jharkhand governor when a “big team of young students from Jammu and Kashmir” had visited Ranchi as part of the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme.
“They were all very surprised by the reception — what we are (were) giving, and I asked our people to serve all the non-vegetarian food to them. I know most of them are non-vegetarians, though I am a vegetarian,” he told the convocation. “I asked the Raj Bhavan that time (now Lok Bhavan), that time I asked all our people that all the Kashmiri students should be served non-vegetarian or what (ever) the food they like.”
“So I am telling, we are Democrats. We have to accept the sentiments (of people fond of non-vegetarian food). We can be proud of our sentiments, no problem in that. That doesn’t mean we should degrade the sentiments of others, it’s not good. And no Democrat will do that. It (the freedoms) has created friendship across regions, cultures and languages. It has ensured that talent is not limited by geography alone,” he added.
Radhakrishnan’s remarks seem to be a rebuff to those seeking a ban on non-vegetarian food.
Fresh controversy erupted recently when the trailer of the film The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond showed a Hindu girl being force-fed beef. The matter escalated after Kerala minister V. Sivankutty, in a post on Facebook, wrote: “While you eat cow dung, those of us in Kerala will eat beef, mutton and chicken.”
Incidents of festival-linked bans or state-imposed restrictions are becoming increasingly common. Tensions flared up in a Jammu locality last month after a Right-wing group allegedly tried to impose restrictions on shopkeepers selling meat, prompting the vendors and their supporters to oppose the move.
In Kashmir, people of all faiths — Muslims, Pandits and Sikhs — relish meat dishes. The region is known for wazwan, a multi-course meat spread in which even vegetable dishes that are part of it are immersed in mutton gravy before being served to guests.
The attempts to impose vegetarianism have done little to change dietary habits, although some displaced Kashmiri Pandits have given up non-vegetarian dishes.
In 2021, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, visiting the Valley for the shoot of his film The Kashmir Files, faced criticism after he introduced Twitterverse to what he called “vegetarian wazwan” — with an apparent threat to change Kashmiris’ food habits.
For many Kashmiris, “vegetarian wazwan” sounded like a “cultural invasion”. After social media exploded in outrage, Agnihotri deleted the post.