File photo of one of the many IITs in the country.
Did the union Human Resources Ministry headed by Smriti Irani mean to push for segregation of non-vegetarian and vegetarian food at premier institutes or did it send out a controversial letter for fear of a complaint reaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
On October 15, an undersecretary in the HRD ministry, AK Singh, had in a covering letter asked IITs and IIMs to consider a proposal for separate eating areas for vegetarian and non-vegetarian students. Attached was the proposal made by an organisation in Madhya Pradesh affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP.
After much buzz, the ministry has clarified that it had merely forwarded the proposal. "We are not asking the IITs to enforce this, we are simply forwarding a representation made to us," said an official.
The government, the official said, took note of it because it had received 25 similar representations from various groups who advocate vegetarianism. "All these letters are also copied to the PM, the BJP president and many also file Right to Information applications soon after to check status," the official said. "In this atmosphere we don't want to appear inactive. They could also complain to the PM's grievance cell."
IIT directors that NDTV spoke to dismissed any such move. "We haven't seen it and there is no such move on our part to do this," said one.
IIT Delhi, however, has stopped serving non-vegetarian food at its mess over a separate dispute. The mess charged the same amount for non-vegetarian and vegetarian meals and some students sought that the price of vegetarian food be lowered. They had also said that the "quantity of food was not enough."
"We asked them to lower the price of vegetarian food, but instead non-veg food was stopped," said a student.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani spent a large part of the day today meeting leaders of the RSS and its affiliates.