Bihar meat restrictions are about ‘cultural control’: Congress MP Manickam Tagore

Lok Sabha MP and Congress whip Manickam Tagore on Tuesday (February 24, 2026) alleged that attempts were being made to impose “cultural control” in the name of governance, citing recent restrictions on meat and fish sales near schools and religious places in Bihar.

In a post on X, Mr. Tagore questioned the rationale behind the move, arguing that such measures went beyond administrative regulation. “Why do RSS and BJP need to be defeated. Because increasingly, the attempt is not just to govern — but to control what people eat, how they live, and whose culture is considered ‘acceptable’,” he said.

The Congress leader argued that restrictions made in the name of “social harmony” disproportionately affected other backward class (OBC) communities, Dalits, Adivasis, and minorities, whose food practices are shaped by their history, geography, and livelihood patterns.

Strength of diversity

“When the State begins to indirectly stigmatise or restrict those food practices, it is not about hygiene — it becomes about cultural control,” he said, adding that India’s strength lay in its diversity of language, faith, dress, and food.

Noting that the Constitution guarantees freedom of choice, Mr. Tagore asserted that governance should protect diversity rather than impose uniformity. “Defeating divisive politics is about defending the idea of India — where no one dictates what another citizen should eat,” he said.