After Beef Ban, Comes Another Ban. Momo Ban.
Amidst the protest that stirred the country past several months on the beef ban, beef protest and the farmer’s strike in Madhya Pradesh, another controversy has now been seen to stage the setting of the great rising in the country, the momos ban. Yes, Momos ban is a new controversy that our political leaders are setting their political field.
A BJP MLC in Jammu and Kashmir is campaigning against India’s favourite snack, momo. Because he ‘thinks’ they are ‘dangerous’ and need to be banned.
A report in the National Herald said that MLC Ramesh Arora wanted momos banned and quoted him as saying that our teenagers were getting addicted to them like drugs and it needed to be stopped.
Well, he is perhaps not wrong. Momos are one of the most popular street foods in India. They are cheap and easily available. They may be addictive because they are delicious.
But Arora is far from being happy about that.
The report said he not only was wary of ‘Burmese and Bangladeshi’ people selling it, he said, “Momo is a killer and we cannot allow a killer to grow in a civilised society. Ajinomoto is dangerous for health.”
While Ajinomoto or MSG (monosodium glutamate) was said to have been bad for health. Several reports suggest (read here, here and here) that it may not be as bad it has been portrayed to be.
Another report in the State Times quoted a statement circulated by the BJP media cell as saying, “MLC Adv Ramesh Arora met with Chief Secretary and Municipal officials and apprised them about uncontrolled growth of Momo shops, meat Reharis (mobile carts) and encroachment in Jammu city without any control.”
Momos are native to Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese culture and are even part of the diet of people in many areas of India.
Momos have become a part of mainstream Indian street food and have found different variations in different cities, like the Tandoori momo in Delhi.
And while Arora is waging a war against them, it may be difficult for him to make people stop eating these delicious and ‘addictive’ dumplings.
(The report was published in The Huffington Post)