Government Wades Into Controversy By Engaging In Diet Politics

What you eat and whom you worship are very private topics. It is ill mannered to talk about them in public. Even the Constitution of India believes in secularism, where the state provides protection to anyone to follow any religion.

And yet, this ruling government has courted medieval mindsets by dictating terms on what you can eat and cannot eat. Remember the mob lynching of Mohammed Ikhlaq because he was believed to have stored beef. It may be right to ban cow slaughter in India, as it is considered a sacred animal by a particular religious community.

But it is illogical to extend this to a dyarchy of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food choices. As wrong it is for a non-vegetarian to make fun of vegetarians, so it is wrong for the government to dictate one choice of diet over another.

Ministry of Health recently waded into controversy on twitter by posting a stock image suggesting that only vegetarian diet is healthy. The image shared on the micro-blogging platform showed a curvy woman on one side and a leaner built on the other, with indications of the kind of food each consumes.

In the curvy woman’s body, sharing space with junk food like soft drinks, donuts and french fries were photographs of food items with known benefits like meat, eggs and healthy fats. The leaner body was filled with plants and vegetables.

Not only does the tweet show biases against dietary habits, it also engages in body shaming. While the millennials have taken many steps and calls against body shaming, the government’s tweet openly caters to it.

And what about the government Commission that coaxed every Indian to eat eggs every day to fight malnutrition?

One would expect a little more scientific and conscientious tweet by the Health Ministry. After all, this is the era of information explosion, not that of a benevolent government where people will blindly follow what the government spoons into them.

Also, the government needs to concentrate on more pressing issues like development and security. And leave the people alone to eat what they want.

Read Also: What Has Happened To Our Planet Since The Last Earth Day?