The announcement by the state unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, C.R. Paatil, that there is no ban on the consumption and sale of meat and that people have the right to eat what they want is welcome. Mr Paatil’s statement assumes significance in the light of civic bodies in Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Junagadh — the BJP runs the show in each of these — ordering a crackdown on roadside food carts and stalls selling non-vegetarian food. No government has the moral right to tutor citizens on their personal choices, an intrusion that the BJP is synonymous with. What merits examination in this context is the packaging of Gujarat, where the BJP has been in power for over two decades, as an abode of vegetarianism.

Source: The Telegraph November 23, 2021 04:10 UTC