Non-veg food on ‘restricted items’ list at Sahitya Sammelana triggers controversy; parishat removes it following protest

The issue of categorising non-vegetarian food among “restricted items” at the 87th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, to be held in Mandya from December 20, has led to a controversy. The trigger was the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) including non-vegetarian food, along with alcohol and tobacco, among “restricted items” at the sammelana venue.

The issue of categorising non-vegetarian food among “restricted items” at the 87th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, to be held in Mandya from December 20, has led to a controversy. The trigger was the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) including non-vegetarian food, along with alcohol and tobacco, among “restricted items” at the sammelana venue.

The KSP later removed non-vegetarian food from the “restricted items” list on its website. Though meat has never been served by the organisers at any sammelana in the past, it has never been explicitly listed as a restricted item either.

Without commenting on the U-turn directly, KSP president Mahesh Joshi said there are committees at the district level for food arrangement at the sahitya sammelana and it has nothing to do with KSP. “A 35-member food committee headed by A.B. Ramesh Babu Bandisiddegowda, MLA, will manage the catering arrangements,” he said.

The earlier list of restricted items had created a furore and some organisations had demanded that non-vegetarian be served at the event. Activists under the banner of Federation of Progressive Organisations protested by eating eggs in front of the Mandya District Commissioner’s office on Monday.

“Disallowing non-vegetarian food is undemocratic. Especially so when Mandya district is famous for non-vegetarian food,” said Krishne Gowda, one of the protesters.

In the Kannada literary tradition, in Manasollasa written by Chalukya king Someshwara III in the 12th-13th Century, there is a huge list of non-vegetarian foods. In such a situation, banning non-vegetarian food is ridiculous, the protesters argued.

They demanded that the restriction on non-vegetarian food at the sammelana’s commercial outlets be lifted and free access provided. They also demanded that chicken and eggs be served to all along with vegetarian meals. They warned that if non-vegetarian food was not allowed, chicken and eggs would be collected from the public and served to everyone at the event.