Keralam: Row Erupts As Governor Orders Veg-Only Lok Bhavan Kitchen Day After Swearing-In

A fresh row has erupted after Keralam's newly elected governor, Om Prakash Mathur, ordered to make the Lok Bhavan kitchen strictly vegetarian. The Congress and the CPI (M) had lashed out at Mathur, calling the announcement a “Sangh Parivaar’s Agenda”.

The controversy erupted shortly after Mathur was sworn in as the 29th Governor of Keralam. Media reports said Mathur had directed that non-vegetarian food should not be prepared or served in the Lok Bhavan kitchen. Responding to the row, the governor’s office said that Mathur was a strict vegetarian and had ordered the change for that reason. They clarified that there was no restriction on the food choices of Lok Bhavan employees.

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What did Venugopal say?

AICC general secretary Venugopal alleged in a statement that the governor had overstepped by directing that only vegetarian food be prepared in the kitchen.

Venugopal said that Keralam has a diverse food culture and, as a coastal state, abundant fish resources. He asserted that people in the state were free to follow vegetarian or non-vegetarian food habits.

"Any attempt to restrict the food habits Keralites are accustomed to or dictate what they should eat from now on cannot be accepted," he said.

Restrictions that interfere with the food choices and seek to change the traditional way of life of Keralites violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Venugopal said. The Congress Secretary said that a person holding a constitutional office, who was duty-bound to protect people's right to decide what to eat and how to live, was insisting that others follow his own food habits.

The new governor was using his authority to "curtail" individual freedom, he alleged."This is a continuation of the unconstitutional interests of the Sangh Parivar. This is the first step towards implementing the saffron agenda of the Sangh Parivar in Keralam," the Alappuzha Lok Sabha MP alleged. Even as Venugopal acknowledged Mathur's freedom to follow a vegetarian diet, he reiterated it was unacceptable to impose the governor's personal food preferences on the Lok Bhavan kitchen, whose staff included Keralites.

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Food freedom was an individual right, and Mathur should withdraw any decision that restricted it, he said. Venugopal reminded Mathur that his constitutional position required him to protect rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including the freedom to cook and eat food of one's choice.

How did the CPI (M) react?

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) state secretary MV Govindan, addressing a press conference here, said India was a country where people had the democratic right to choose between vegetarian and non-vegetarian food.

"Attempts are being made to take away this right. Behind these efforts is the Sangh Parivar agenda of communal polarisation," he alleged. He said there were attempts to turn even food into a "communal weapon".