Cancellation of food  ordered by a Hindu through Zomato on religious grounds and  Mahatma Gandhi's vision indicting   Hindu Tea and Muslim Tea 

    A  citizen of India from Jabalpur who is a Hindu refused to  accept food ordered by him through Zomato on the ground that it was delivered to him by a Muslim boy. He tweeted his refusal and conveyed the message that being a Hindu it would be unacceptable for him to receive food from a non-Hindu. It  seems to be a  grim indicator  of the new normal in New India.  The reply of Zomato that there is no religion in food and food is religion is quite apt and it asserts and affirms the idea of India which is above all religions. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal took a positive  stand by saying , "We are proud of the idea of India - and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren't sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values."
    Proponents of idea of India cheered zomato for its stand in treating food above all religions and asserting that the faith of the delivery boy is of no consequence for the consumer of the food. Isn't  this  stand of Zomato heartwarming and incompatible with the idea of  New India marked by accentuation of distinctions based on religion? Are not differences among people based on religion getting converted to prejudices and discriminations in New India? Aren't people in New India  made to hate one another because of their faith? It is indeed tragic that in New India fellow citizens who suffer  exclusion because they profess faiths different from the faith of the majority people are treated as the "other" and become vulnerable to hateful crimes. Many of them get lynched in the name of religious slogan, food and their choices for showing love and affection to some one of other faith. 
    On 21st September 2017 a lady BJP leader in Aligarh was found slapping a young minor girl because she was sipping tea with a Muslim boy. Such worrisome instances  invokes some features of India under British rule where vendors in rail way stations used to yell Hindu Tea, Muslim Tea, Hindu water and Muslim water to attract the attention of customers to sell those beverages by putting  religious tags. Is the Idea of New India driving us back to the pre independent and colonial era? 
    Yes, indeed in pre independent India there used to be the practice of selling tea by classifying it into Hindu tea and Muslim tea. Same was the case concerning water which was offered to people in public places and railway stations by specifying and differentiating it as Hindu water and Muslim water. Division of beverages and water by employing religion and selling or distributing them to people of respective faiths was considered by none other than Mahatma Gandhi as a gigantic  obstacle for heart unity among  Hindus and Muslims. In the  Constructive Programme authored by him in 1941 he incorporated 18 points and the first point was on Communal Unity and he very thoughtfully wrote therein about a happy state of things in India where  each  Congress person,  whatever his religion might  be, would represent in his own person Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Zoroastrian, Jew, etc..  and "...has to feel his identity with every one of the millions of the inhabitants of Hindustan". "In order to realize this, " he said,  " every Congressman will cultivate personal friendship with persons representing faiths other than his own" and "...should have the same regard for the other faiths as he has for his own". Then he observed with conviction that " In such a happy state of things there would be no disgraceful cry at the stations such as “Hindu water” and “Muslim water” or “ Hindu tea” and “ Muslim tea”. There would be no separate rooms or pots for Hindus and non-Hindus in schools and colleges, no communal schools, colleges and hospitals. The beginning of such a revolution has to be made by Congressmen without any political motive behind the correct conduct. Political unity will be its natural fruit."
    Five years later i.e. on 11th April 1946  Mahatma Gandhi went to see and interact with Indian National Army(INA) soldiers who were taken as prisoners by British authorities. He was highly impressed  to see so many officers and men of INA representing so many different religions and races of India united together for the common cause of India's freedom and living like members of one family. For him "It was like a whiff of fresh invigorating air from the free India that is to be". He felt that "The absence of the third party had enabled them to obliterate all communal distinctions and develop a perfect spirit of comaraderie in exile". However, in detention they informed Gandhiji with pain and sadness that they were made to feel the distinctions based on religion. One INA soldier told him "We never felt any distinction of creed or religion in the I. N. A. But here we are faced with ‘Hindu tea’ and ‘Mussalman tea.” He then asked " What are we to do?"
    Mahatma Gandhi put a counter question by asking,  "Why do you suffer it?" The soldier answered by saying,  "No, we do not,” and revealed, “We mix ‘Hindu tea’ and Musalman tea’ exactly half and half, and then serve. The same with food". Gandhiji had a hearty laugh and remarked by saying "That is very good". 
    The present generation would never believe that the practice of selling Hindu tea and Muslim tea in railway stations continued till 1950s and one lady Member of the Rajya Sabha Shrimati Seeta Paramananda while participating in the discussion on Railway budget used to draw attention of the then Railway Minister and fervently appeal to stop that abominable practice. Eventually it was stopped. 
    Now in twenty first century India the food and beverages are seen from the perspective of religion and the divisive spirit is invoked with a view to polarize society and narrow down multiple identities of people to a immediate factor of religion. 
    The spirit of independent India best represented by Mahatma Gandhi's vision devoid of shameful yelling at railway stations to sell Hindu tea and Muslim tea and the spirit of soldiers of Indian National Army who mixed Hindu Tea and Muslim Tea in equal proportions and consumed it should be the sheet anchor of new India. We cannot rest in peace if the vision of India shaped by Mahatma Gandhi and soldiers of INA gets distorted by disruptive ideology. Thankfully the police authorities in Jabalpur has taken serious view of the divisive tweet of the man and issued a warning by saying that "If in the next six months, he again makes any such tweets or commits any such act which is against basic tenets of the constitution or worthy of disturbing public peace or communal amity, then he will automatically be sent to jail". We require vigilant public administration and robust vision of the father of our nation to defend our Republic and Constitution which celebrate idea of secular, pluralistic and tolerant India. 
    

Shri Sahu served as OSD and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K R Narayanan and had a tenure as Director in Prime Minister’s Office and Joint Secretary in Rajya Sabha Secretariat.