Contrary to its Hindu belief, “Bharat” is a non-vegetarian country on a large scale. But, the new waive followed by Bharatiya Janta Party judicial are adamant to create a change, bringing vegetarianism in the country.
Determining food habits is a clear breach of fundamental rights of individuals and their freedom. This is the one form of cultural imposition. As if some other code of conducts like to dress in a certain way and to behave in certain way were less hassling. On one hand, the govt. assures that its policies are not oriented to any particular group or community, but the daily blast of statements making guidelines on “how/what to eat” are a matter of concern for the meat shops around.
In UP, it’s Yogi and in Gujarat, it’s Vijay Rupani declaring their intentions to make the states a pure veggie’s choice. Vijay Rupani said, “This is Gandhi’s Gujarat, Sardar’s (Vallabhbhai Patel) Gujarat and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.”
Previous Friday, the Gujarat Assembly announced a long punishment period for the violators of Animal Preservation Bill in the state. The punishments are draconian with life imprisonment punishment and 10 years for cow slaughter.
Here, vegetarianism has been used as a drive of fear among the Muslims and other communities with similar habits. This suggests a sheer form of dictatorship.
This is the time, when they are applying the intrinsic values of Hinduism in the modern “Bharat” where pluralism is prevailing in veins.
While the upper-caste Hindu ideology forces the masses to not devour the beef and harm the cows, some animals remain unfortunate in this regard.
Despite that, the decision of civil society is yet to surface on these decisions. To our fear, this strong drive towards vegetarianism may not be a matter of just beef eaters and Muslims.
This is a complete danger to multicultural pluralism of the country. Today, it’s about food habits, tomorrow it can be about your responses to situations or a code of conduct on behaviours.
