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Kerala Tourism Twitter handle had sparked a controversy by tweeting a picture of a beef dish on the day of Makara Sankranti.

Dont link food with religion Kerala Min responds to row over beef tweet
news Controversy Friday, January 17, 2020 - 14:26
Written by  Sreedevi Jayarajan

A day the Kerala Tourism's official Twitter handle triggered a major controversy by posting a picture of a beef dish on the day of Makara Sankranti, a Hindu festival, Tourism Minister Kadakkampally Surendran responded to the row.

Speaking to ANI, K Surendran said that attempts to communalise the tweet was condemnable.

"In Kerala no one is linking food with religion. Government does not have any interest in hurting religious belief of anyone. Giving communal colour to this is condemnable," he said.

Several Twitter users, especially those with the right wing, had urged people to boycott Kerala for 'disrespecting Hindus' and other users alleged that the government of the state, which has over 25 percent of Muslims, would not dare post recipes of pork.

Addressing these allegations, Surendran said that pork recipes too are available on the Kerala Tourism website.

"Those who're trying to find communalism in all this, are creating a controversy by saying 'put pork pictures'. Many dishes, including pork pictures, are already on the website, they might not have seen," he said. A cursory glance at the tourism website shows that they do have pork and beef recipes.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Tourism Minister CT Ravi tweeted welcoming people to Karnataka, and he listed out many popular vegetarian dishes in the state. This in turn has lead to many within Karnataka questioning if the BJP wanted to showcase only the vegetarian dishes of the state. Read here.

The tweet that created the controversy

On Thursday, Kerala Tourism tweeted a picture of 'Beef Ularthiyathu' - popular dish from the state on their official handle.

Pointing out that the Hindus celebrated Makara Sankranti and Pongal on the same day, several Twitter users took offence to the timing of tweet, arguing that the left government in Kerala was intentionally attempting to hurt Hindu religious sentiments.

However, several other users in support of Kerala Tourism added that people were free to choose what they wanted to consume, and that the tweet did not force beef on people.

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