Tukaram Mundhe shows food is a big issue in India. Just not in the way BJP thought it was
The emergence of Tukaram Mundhe as a hero to the Mumbai middle classes got me thinking about food policy. A decade ago, when a parliamentary election and a series of assembly polls sent India hurtling back to the Middle Ages, many of us were horrified…
The emergence of Tukaram Mundhe as a hero to the Mumbai middle classes got me thinking about food policy. A decade ago, when a parliamentary election and a series of assembly polls sent India hurtling back to the Middle Ages, many of us were.
The centrepiece of the campaign was originally meant to be beef. Not only were harsh sentences imposed on anyone selling beef (five years of rigorous imprisonment in many states), but the real agenda of the campaign was revealed when people began to be lynched.
What Happened
The political obsession was less with protecting the holy cow and more with persecuting poor Muslims, some of whom are beef eaters (beef can be one-third the price of goat meat). Later, the beef obsession was extended to all non-vegetarian food, and.
In 2017, Shekhar Gupta started ThePrint with a simple belief: Indian readers want journalism that asks why and what next, not just what.
We’ve travelled across the country to bring you in-depth, visually-compelling stories from the ground.
We’ve been asking the follow-up questions, going beyond the headlines and explaining what’s actually happening.
Key Details
If a housing society or a landlord wanted to deny accommodation to a Muslim, then it had a ready excuse: it claimed that it did not want non-vegetarians. So hysterical was the campaign that the Delhi police even raided the canteen at.
And, in these nine years, we’ve stayed true to our mission.
And that enough of them would be willing to pay for good journalism.
Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist and talk show host.
Why It Matters
This campaign has now been toned down, though the laws remain on the statute books. But the India-is-vegetarian motto seems like the official position of the government.
If he had acted on the poisons that are tainting our food?
But think of how different it could all have been if Mr Modi had got there first?
What Reports Say
Coverage of the story so far points to:
Continued reporting by ThePrint as more details emerge
