Over the past couple of days, social media platforms, particularly X, witnessed Right Wing supporters criticising Opposition leaders and media personalities for posting pictures or videos of them consuming non-vegetarian food. Their claim was that this was being done to ‘hurt Hindu sentiments’ during the period of Chaitra Navratri, which falls between April 9 and April 17. 

This criticism found support from none other than Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, on Friday, April 12, launched an attack on the Congress, accusing them of ‘disrespecting’ Hindu sentiments by consuming meat during the holy month of Sawan. Speaking at a public rally in Udhampur, PM Modi referred to a viral video and said, “Who do you want to mock? Eating non veg during the days of Navratri, by showing the video and hurting the sentiments of the people, who are you trying to impress by playing this game?”. He went on to claim that the videos of people consuming meat are posted “intentionally so that the beliefs of this country are attacked”. 

Though the PM did not take any names, he was probably reacting to a viral video which was released in September 2023, in which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Lalu Yadav were seen cooking mutton together.

However, the PM’s statements were met with severe criticism from a section who accused him of trying to divide people based on their food choices. Some even took a dig at the BJP by pointing out a video of their Tamil Nadu party chief Annamalai telling veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai that he would join him to eat chicken. 

It is to be noted that according to the recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data, 83.4% of men in India and 70.6% of women in the age group of 15-49 years, consume non-vegetarian food daily. 

Entrepreneur Divya Gandotra Tandon, on April 10, had shared a video of Rajdeep Sardesai relishing sea-food, as part of his election coverage in Chennai. She said, “Why is it that during Navratri, every leftist seems to be posting videos of themselves eating non-vegetarian food? Are they trying to appease a particular community?”

This was also met with huge backlash from users, who accused her for judging people based on what they eat. 

Responding to Divya’s tweet, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram said, “The North Indian Sanskritised Vegetarian Hindutva has nothing to do with practice of the Hindu faith in the rural South”.