State-sponsored biryani festivals should not exclude beef: SC/ST Commission

‘Such exclusion would set a wrong precedent’

Beef cannot be excluded from the menu of State-sponsored biryani festivals, the Tamil Nadu Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission has held.

Such exclusion would set a wrong precedent, it said, while dealing with the issue of the Tirupattur district administration banning beef and pork biryani at the Ambur Biryani Festival, which was set to be held in May. Following a controversy over the ban on beef, the district administration put off the festival indefinitely, citing “rain forecast”.

The Commission had issued a notice to Tirupattur Collector Amar Kushwaha over the incident.

The Commission’s Member-Secretary, however, accepted the response given by Mr. Kushwaha, that the district administration did not show any caste discrimination by banning beef biryani at the festival. Nonetheless, beef biryani should not be excluded in future, the Commission said. It expressed displeasure over the Collector “showing disrespect” to it, but spared him of any action.

The Commission ordered that the district administration should not show any such differential treatment in such festivals in future. A copy of the order has been sent to the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and senior officers of all districts.

Sequencing the events after the postponement of the festival, the Commission said that the Collector, in his response to The Hindu reportdated May 13 about the notice, had contended that the postponement of the festival had made the Commission’s notice “null and void”. The Commission said the Collector’s statement seemed to show disrespect to it. For this, the Commission could take action against the Collector. However, it avoided such action, considering that the Collector, being the head of a district, should not be seen by the public in poor light.

The Collector, in his response dated June 6, argued that the issue of a pork ban was not raised by the Commission in its notice to him. However, the Commission said pork was not used to make biryani anywhere. The Collector put forth such a term to garner support from Ambur residents. Nevertheless, the Commission accepted the district administration’s response that the scheduled festival was not aimed at creating division among people on communal lines.

Originally, the Tirupattur district administration planned to organise the Ambur Biryani Festival from May 13 to 15, permitting only chicken, mutton, fish and prawn biryani to be sold at the festival. This had drawn criticism from Islamic and Dalit outfits. The VCK, an ally of the ruling DMK, disapproved of the ban on beef and pork biryani. Subsequently, the SC/ST Commission said not allowing beef biryani to be sold amounted to discrimination against Dalits and Muslims, and issued a notice to the Collector.