Opinion Lalu Prasad, Rahul Gandhi and Champaran Mutton: A recipe for decency at a time when food is politics – and violence

Could one consider the Rahul Gandhi and Lalu Prasad video in which the duo cook Champaran Mutton a recipe video? Considered against the usual standards for this genre of content, perhaps not. One can easily do a Google search to find about a dozen others that surpass it in terms of accuracy of measurements for the oil, onion, khada masala, etc. Some offer explanations for why whole garlic bulbs are necessary for the recipe or why the mustard oil should be smoked before being added to the meat and quite a few recipes also have helpful hints on how to make substitutions — should they prove necessary — or hacks to make the dish simpler or tastier than it already is.

The video with the two politicians is less about the dish than it is about what Rahul and Lalu talk about when they talk about Champaran Mutton. “Without ‘mixing’, rajneeti ho hi nahi sakta (politics is impossible without ‘mixing’),” says Lalu, at one point, when asked by Rahul how the process of cooking Champaran Mutton is similar to politics. Perhaps the 75-year-old RJD leader, a canny participant and observer of Indian politics for several decades, is referring to how the INDIA alliance came together, with the “mixing” of 28 political parties, with diverse interests and strengths — and frequently at such odds with each other that their coming together to form a united front seemed impossible. Could they learn to work together towards a greater goal and find some sort of harmony — like how onion, garlic, mustard oil, pepper, coriander and mutton come together to create a delicious, wholesome dish?

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Yet, in its own way, the video does show the best way of cooking Champaran Mutton — without fear and anxiety about who one might be offending with one’s personal dietary preferences. In a country where food is inseparable from politics, where people are attacked and even killed for what is on their plate (and, as has happened in a disturbing number of cases, for what is not), to make a political statement about the possibilities of collaboration by cooking a meat dish together is a bold choice. Consider all the offended reactions that the video has received since it was posted on Sunday, with people outraged over a “janeudhaari Brahmin” cooking meat in the month of Shravan/Saawan. To such critics, the sight of two people cooking together brings no joy, no upliftment, no hope — they see in it a red rag, only because what they’re cooking together is, by some narrow definition, “taboo”.

For those whose worldview makes allowances for the fact that people’s dietary preferences and religious observances are a matter of personal choice, the video’s appeal is obvious, the warmth and camaraderie it displays palpable. Who doesn’t want to enjoy a bowl full of excellent mutton, hot from the handi, in the company of one’s fellow travellers? In the video, Tejashwi Yadav talks about working towards a “progressive” and “positive” politics. To be able to sit together, laugh, talk and, indeed, eat together — whether salad, khichdi or mutton — is a promising start.

pooja.pillai@expressindia.com