Thiruvananthapuram, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on Friday strongly criticised the reported decision of new Keralam Governor Om Prakash Mathur to make the Lok Bhavan kitchen strictly vegetarian, alleging that it reflected the “unconstitutional interests” of the Sangh Parivar.
Shortly after Mathur was sworn in on Friday, Venugopal, in a statement, alleged that the governor had gone too far by deciding that only vegetarian food should be prepared in the kitchen. He alleged that a person holding a constitutional office, who was duty-bound to protect the right to decide what to eat and how to live, was insisting that others follow his own food habits. The other employees either brought food from home or ate outside, and no restrictions had been imposed on their food choices, they added.
Responding, sources in the governor’s office said Mathur was a strict vegetarian and that’s why he had directed to avoid preparing non-vegetarian food in the kitchen. There was no restriction on employees’ choice of food, they said. Keralam has a mixed food culture, and as a coastal state, has abundant fish resources, he said, adding that people in the state had the freedom 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 “intrude” into food choices and seek to erase the traditional way of life of Keralites violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Venugopal said.
