India states’ plans to punish spitting in food spark controversy

Last week, two states ruled by India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced plans to impose hefty fines and imprisonment for contaminating food with spit, urine and dirt.

The northern state of Uttarakhand will fine offenders up to 100,000 rupees ($1,190; £920), while neighbouring Uttar Pradesh is set to introduce stringent laws to address the issue.

The government directives followed the circulation of unverified videos on social media showing vendors spitting on food at local stalls and restaurants – and one video depicting a house help mixing urine into food she was preparing.

While the videos sparked outrage among users, with many expressing concern about food safety in these states, some of the videos also became the subject of blame campaigns targeting Muslims, which were later debunked by fact-checking websites.

They pointed out that many on social media had alleged that the woman adding urine to food was Muslim, but police later identified her as a Hindu.

Officials say strict laws are necessary and are aimed at deterring people from indulging in unhygienic practices around food, but opposition leaders and legal experts have questioned the efficacy of these laws and allege that they could also be misused to vilify a specific community.

The Indian Express newspaper criticised the ordinances proposed by Uttar Pradesh state, saying that they “act as a communal [sectarian] dog whistle that preys on the majority’s notions of purity and pollution and targets an already insecure minority”.

Food and food habits are sensitive subjects in culturally-diverse India as they are deeply intertwined with religion and the country’s hierarchical caste system. Norms and taboos around food sometimes lead to clashes between communities, sparking feelings of distrust. Consequently, the notion of “food safety” too has become entangled with religion, which is sometimes used to ascribe motive to alleged incidents of contamination.

Food safety is also a major concern in India, with the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) estimating that unsafe food causes around 600 million infections and 400,000 deaths annually.

Experts cite various reasons for poor food safety in India, including inadequate enforcement of food safety laws and a lack of awareness. Cramped kitchens, dirty utensils, contaminated water, and improper transport and storage practices further compromise food safety.

So, when videos of vendors spitting in food came out, people were shocked and outraged. Soon after, Uttarakhand announced hefty fines on offenders and made it mandatory for police to verify hotel staff and for CCTVs to be installed in kitchens.

In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said to stop such incidents, police should verify every employee. The state also plans to make it mandatory for food centres to display the names of their owners, for cooks and waiters to wear masks and gloves and for CCTVs to be installed in hotels and restaurants.

According to reports, Adityanath is planning to bring in two ordinances that will penalise spitting in food with imprisonment up to 10 years.

In July, India’s Supreme Court had stayed directives issued by the Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments asking people running food stalls along the route of Kanwar yatra – an annual Hindu pilgrimage – to prominently display the names and other identity details of their owners. Petitioners told the top court that the directives unfairly targeted Muslims and would negatively impact their businesses.

On Wednesday, police in the state’s Barakanki town arrested restaurant owner Mohammad Irshad for allegedly spitting on a roti (flat bread) while preparing it. Mr Irshad was charged with disturbing peace and religious harmony, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Earlier this month, police in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, arrested two men – Naushad Ali and Hasan Ali – for allegedly spitting in a saucepan while making tea, and accused them of causing public outrage and jeopardising health, reported The Hindu.

The videos of the men spitting, which found their way onto social media days before they were arrested, were given a religious spin after many Hindu nationalist accounts began calling them incidents of “thook-jihad” or “spit-jihad”.

The term is a spin on “love-jihad” which has been coined by radical Hindu groups, who use it to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage. By extension, “thook-jihad” accuses Muslims of trying to defile Hindus by spitting in their food.

This is not the first time that the Muslim community has become targets of spitting accusations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of fake videos showing Muslims spitting, sneezing or licking objects to infect people with the virus went viral on social media. The videos heightened religious polarisation, with Hindu hardline accounts posting anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Opposition leaders in the two BJP-ruled states have criticised the new directives, saying they could be used to target Muslims and that the government was using such orders as a smokescreen to divert attention from other key problems like unemployment and sky-rocketing inflation.

But Manish Sayana, a food safety officer in Uttarakhand, says the government’s orders are solely aimed at making food safe for consumption. He told the BBC that the food safety officers and the police have started conducting surprise checks at eateries and that they “urge people to wear masks and gloves and install CCTVs” wherever they go for checks.

Legal expert and journalist V Venkatesan says there is a need for new ordinances and laws around food safety to be properly debated on the assembly floor.

“According to me, the existing laws [under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006] are sufficient to take care of any offences connected to food safety. So, one needs to ask why the need for these new laws and directives?” he asks.

“Governments seem to think that laws prescribing harsh punishments will deter people from committing crimes, but research has shown that it is the proper implementation of laws that deter people from committing crimes. So, have the existing laws not been properly implemented in these states yet?”

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.