West Bengal is an Indian state in the eastern part of the country, and the only one in India with an incumbent woman Chief Minister — Mamata Banerjee.
The region, which was the political heart of the Bengal Presidency during British Rule, was divided into East and West Bengal in 1947. Bengal was a hotbed of the Indian Independence movement and has remained one of the country’s great artistic and intellectual centres, being home to Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee as well as freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray.
Geographically, the state is happily situated with the Himalayas in the north and the Sundarbans in the south. It shares a roughly 2,200-sqkm border with Bangladesh (East Bengal at the time of Partition).
For the first 30 years, the Congress ruled Bengal, but made way for Left domination for the next 34 years. In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress — a breakaway from the Congress — came to power.
Mr Jagannathan, for once, please stop being an apologist for this government and its policies, and grow a spine. While campaigning for the assembly elections, the politicians went around talking, eating and carrying fish. And now that they’ve won, they have taken away the simple, humble, yet packed-with-nutrition, egg from the mouths of the poorest. Does this party have no shame? How mean and petty can they be? For once, can they think about and for the people rather than their own ideology? This is so sad to see.
Eggs are served in schools only once a week. Instead of denying eggs to students in a state where more than 98% of the population is non-vegetarian, you could provide monetary compensation to students who prefer a vegetarian diet and allow schools to continue serving eggs to the others. This would also be easier to implement.
With due respect, I believe this issue is not about ISKCON. It is about respecting people’s food choices and avoiding the imposition of one dietary preference on everyone.
I also believe that if such a policy is implemented across West Bengal, especially in rural areas, it may not be received well by the public and could have political consequences in the future.
In a state which is 98% non vegetarian – one can understand pockets of orthodoxy in Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat – why would anyone deprive school children of the high quality protein eggs contain. Recall ruling party candidates campaigning with a fish strung over their arms to reassure voters that there would be no obscurantism if they formed the government. 2. State banquets at Rashtrapati Bhavan featuring millets, aubergine and not much else.