An outright misinformation in DNA: Non-veg food is banned in Ahmedabad

I was a little surprised to read a picture story in DNA news website, which includes Ahmedabad as the first city among seven where non-vegetarian consumption is banned.

I don't know about the other cities in the list -- Pushkar, Palitana, Tirupati, Veshno Devi, Shirdi, Haridwar -- in the story, which claims that the information is not an opinion but has been obtained from media reports.

However, as for Ahmedabad, non-veg food is not only easily available but is fast becoming increasingly common for those seeking to eat outside home. Not only this, you can easily order it online -- I have myself done it several times.

Of course, there are Jain-dominated housing societies where non-veg food is "not allowed". But I am told even some Jains go out and reach up to non-veg eateries in western Ahmedabad to have "tasty food."

The DNA story is as false as the common saying that Gujarat is a vegetarian state. Officially, 42% people are non-veg in Gujarat, but a caste wise calculation reveals that at least 72% Gujaratis take non-veg food.

Only upper caste Brahmins and Banias, Patels, Jains and a very few OBC castes have been traditionally vegitarian. Others -- Muslims, upper caste Rajputs, Dalits, Adivasis and numerically strong OBC castes Thakores and Kolis are have been traditionally non-veg consumers.

Comments

Instilling sense of insecurity among 'fearful' millions, Modi to win comfortably

This was one of the most interesting reports I read on the Lok Sabha elections. Titled, "If Sangam Pilgrims Are Bellwether, They Indicate Clear Majority for Modi", published in what is considered to be an anti-Narendra Modi site, "The Wire", it reports on interaction with boatmen and pilgrims from across India, even as pointing towards why Modi would get a "clear majority."

India's 78% firms think achieving net zero is cost to business, 52% say it's risky: Report

A leading global management consulting firm working with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, as well as with government bodies and nonprofit organizations, has said that while vast majority of Indian businesses surveyed (91%) claim they have set targets to reach net zero, with 51% of them viewing these targets as “highly achievable”, ironically, most of them (78%) consider sustainability as a cost to business rather than opportunity.

Anti-Rupala Rajputs 'have no support' of numerically strong Kshatriya communities

Personally, I have no love lost for Purshottam Rupala, though I have known him ever since I was posted as the Times of India representative in Gandhinagar in 1997, from where I was supposed to do political reporting. In news after he made the statement that 'maharajas' succumbed to foreign rulers, including the British, and even married off their daughters them, there have been large Rajput rallies against him for “insulting” the community.

India 'not keen' on legally binding global treaty to reduce plastic production

Even as offering lip-service to the United Nations Environment Agency (UNEA) for the need to curb plastic production, the Government of India appears reluctant in reducing the production of plastic. A senior participant at the UNEP’s fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), which took place in Ottawa in April last week, told a plastics pollution seminar that India, along with China and Russia, did not want any legally binding agreement for curbing plastic pollution.

'Modi govt's assault on dissent': Foreign funds of top finance NGO blocked

In a surprise move, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has cancelled the foreign funding license of the well-known advocacy group, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), known for critically examining India's finance and banking sectors from human rights and environmental angle.

'28% rise in sedition cases': Top global NGO alliance rates India's civil space 'repressed'

Rating India's civic space as repressed , Civicus, a global civil society alliance, in its new report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on the state of civic space in the country has said that the use of sedition law against the Modi government’s critics continues. "Under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sedition cases have increased by 28 per cent with over 500 cases against more than 7,000 people", it says.

Urban Naxal to Amit Shah, AAP Bharuch candidate tops ADR's Gujarat criminal cases list

Refusing to go beyond the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the Lok Sabha candidates’ own declarations of their criminal record, educational qualification and assets, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a top-notch advocacy group, has declared Aam Aadmi Party candidate Chaitar Vasava, 35, having the highest number of criminal cases of all those fighting the electoral battle on 26 seats in Gujarat.

Search This Blog