Controversy in Itanagar After Govt Asks Hotels to Remove 'Beef' From Signboards

New Delhi: In a controversial move, the district administration of the Itanagar Capital Region has issued a notification to all “hotels and restaurants” in the area to remove signboards which have the word ‘beef’ in it.

The argument given by Tamo Dada, the extra assistant commissioner (EAC) of Naharlagun sub-division in his July 13 order, stated that it was to “maintain peace in the community and to continue the spirit of secularism and brotherhood within the community”.

The order said while the district administration “believes in the secular spirit of our Indian constitution but such open display of word ‘beef’ on the signboards of such hotels and restaurants may hurt the sentiments of some sections of the community and may create animosity between different groups of community”.

As per media reports quoting Dada, the district administration acted in response to a “verbal complaint” received from “a group of concerned local citizens” about of the “mushrooming of such beef eateries in the Naharlagun administrative sub-division” and that such signboards “hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindu community”. An India Today report from Itanagar said, “The EAC, however, did not divulge any details about the ‘group of people’ who had filed the complaint.”

In that order, the EAC had stated that the failure to comply with the order would attract a penalty of Rs 2,000 and also cancellation of the trading license of those hotels and restaurants.

For some years now, opposition to selling beef by a section of influential local people in the Tawang region of Arunachal has been noticed. Their complaint has also been that those shops were being run by ‘outsiders’ in their areas. On several occasions, vehicles were checked by local citizens’ bodies for beef brought by locals from outside the region. Eating beef is a common practice in the state. Signboards stating ‘Beef hotel’ across Itanagar is a common sight.

However, the August 13 official order asking restaurants and hotels in the Itanagar area to remove the word ‘beef’ from their signboards while continuing to sell the meat is seen as the first such intervention in the BJP-ruled state to promote the BJP’s anti-beef stand. The state also has the most prominent and deep penetration of the BJP’s ideological fount, the Rasthriya Swayamsevak Sangh, in the Northeast which opposes beef eating.

Reacting to the order which went viral since July 14, Arunachal Christian Forum president Toko Teki told the Arunachal Times on August 14 that it was “unnecessary”. The news report said, “On an earlier occasion, the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) had put up a controversial signboard on the Bank Tinali underpass, describing Itanagar as the ‘Hindi capital of the Northeast’. The IMC was forced to replace the signboard after it was widely trolled on social media.”

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