The Indian government has faced criticism from opposition leaders after a vegetarian-only menu was served to world leaders at a dinner during the BRICS Summit in New Delhi.
The dinner, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian among other leaders, featured more than 10 vegetarian dishes.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the menu on X, writing: “For the record: 80 percent of Indians are non-vegetarian. Indian non-vegetarian food is delicious.”
Congress member Waris Pathan said that promoting vegetarianism was a choice but argued that India’s food culture should not be presented as exclusively vegetarian.
“You want to promote vegetarianism, go ahead – absolutely do that – but don’t limit India’s food culture to just a vegetarian menu,” Pathan said, adding that mutton, chicken and fish were just as important in India’s culinary diversity.
Another Congress leader, Pawan Khera, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of imposing its dietary preferences on Indians and said the same approach had now been extended to foreign dignitaries.
“The BJP’s habit of imposing its dietary preferences on fellow Indians is already deeply problematic. Now, they have taken it a step further by imposing their own choices on dignitaries from across the world,” Khera said.
Federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju rejected the criticism and accused Congress of politicising the dinner menu. “I can’t believe that Congress party is making politics even on the food menu served to the leaders of BRICS nations,” he wrote on X.
The controversy comes amid wider debates in India over food, caste and religion. Vegetarianism has historically been associated with some privileged caste groups and Hindu religious traditions, while meat, fish and eggs form part of the diets of a large section of the Indian population.
Critics of the BJP government have previously accused it of promoting a Brahminical Hindu-coded vegetarian diet as a national norm while sidelining other food traditions.
Several BJP-ruled states have also introduced restrictions affecting meat sales, slaughterhouses, eggs in school meals or the sale of non-vegetarian food around religious occasions.
The issue has particular implications for Muslim, Dalit, Christian and pastoral communities, which have traditionally included meat and other animal products in their diets.
At the BRICS dinner, the menu included dishes such as paneer lababdar, gucchi marmik made with Himalayan morel mushrooms from Kashmir and beetroot raita.
India has served vegetarian food to foreign leaders at previous diplomatic events as well. During the G20 summit in 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly returned to his hotel after a vegetarian dinner and ordered bread, cheese and cold cuts.
