When a Dinner Menu Becomes a Political Battle

When a Dinner Menu Becomes a Political Battle: India’s Deepening Crisis of Political Trust

From Parliament to the BRICS summit, every political disagreement is increasingly interpreted through mistrust and suspicion.

Perhaps nothing illustrates how deep the trust deficit has become better than what happened at the recently concluded BRICS Summit in New Delhi. The elaborate vegetarian dinner hosted to the leaders and delegates - showcasing India's regional culinary traditions - at the Summit, which could ordinarily have been seen simply as a choice of hospitality and cuisine, has become a media headline and an unescapable political controversy.

Science and India’s own scientific experience offer a simple lesson: trust is earned by demonstrating public purpose, not merely proclaiming it.

Mumbai, the epicentre of Ganesh festivities, is continuing to celebrate the ten day Ganesh Festival with thousands lining up to seek blessings of Bhagwan Ganesh - Lalbaugcha Raja, Mumbaicha Raja and many others including the neighbourhood Ganesh mandals, each sustained by local committees, artisans, and volunteers, complete a tradition that the world now travels to witness.

Historically, the devotees look up to Ganesh as Vighnaharta” (विघ्नहर्ता), the remover of obstacles. In India we are now encountering a different obstacle - an uncomfortable one – which our democracy urgently needs to confront: the growing deficit of trust in public life. This year, I join Mumbaikars in praying Bhagwan Ganesh – Vighnaharta, to remove the obstacle of trust deficit, which unfortunately is plaguing Indian polity, which is adversely affecting Indian society.

In the prevailing political circumstances of trust deficit, no wonder vegetarian dinner menu is being interpreted as evidence of cultural exclusion, ideological imposition or political intent. That is how dangerous a trust deficit can become, which encompasses all aspects of Indian polity.

Today, the Treasury Bench and the Opposition increasingly appear to be antagonistic to each other’s thoughts, demonstrating political realities of current times. What the government presents as reform is interpreted by the Opposition as manipulation. What the Opposition presents as scrutiny is interpreted by the government as obstruction. To add to this is the sloganeering and social media trolls and viral media messages that ghettoise society on political ideological beliefs which further accentuate the political mistrust. 

Unfortunately, caught in this political cross fire, is the credibility of the constitutional and investigative institutions—from the Election Commission and judiciary to agencies such as the CBI and ED. The result is not merely an unpleasant political atmosphere, but a weakened confidence in the democratic process itself.

We must remind ourselves that Trust, once lost, cannot be restored by louder political sloganeering.

Science offers an interesting lesson in how trust is created.

In 1854, when the safety of Lift was still viewed with suspicion, Elisha Otis demonstrated his newly devised safety brake mechanism, which he had designed for the lifts, before a packed hall of curious onlookers at the Industry of All Nations exhibition at the New York Crystal Palace.  Otis, standing on a lift platform suspended 50 feet high in the air, ordered his assistant, to cut the cable holding the lift. Instead of an expected free fall, the rope snapped and the platform dropped a few inches, and then instantly jerked to a complete halt. The safety design had worked. Otis delivered one of the most famous catchphrases in industrial history:

"All safe, gentlemen, all safe!" His words demonstrated that technology could be trusted and rest is history. That demonstration helped build trust in technology that would eventually transform high rise landscapes in cities.

Science has repeatedly shown that difficult problems become manageable when evidence, leadership and collective purpose converge. The story of polio is an even more relevant Indian example.

Jonas Salk developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine, while Albert Sabin subsequently developed the oral vaccine that became central to mass immunisation programmes. Their scientific achievements provided the tools. But science alone could not create trust to eradicate polio in a country as vast and diverse as India.

India's success came when political leadership, public health institutions, international partners, health workers, civil society and communities trusted each other and worked towards one national objective: making India polio free. In two decades, India from reporting highest cases of world polio cases, was certified polio-free in March 2014.

The achievement was not the triumph of one government, one organisation or one scientist. It was the result of many parts of society trusting each other in achieving a common goal.

That is precisely the lesson that public life needs to rediscover.

Prafulla Chandra Ray, the great Indian chemist and institution-builder, famously observed: “Science can afford to wait, but Swaraj cannot.” The statement was not a dismissal of science. It reflected a larger principle: there are moments when personal interests and professional ambitions must be subordinated to a larger national purpose.

Jagadish Chandra Bose offered another dimension of that ethic. His pioneering work in radio waves and plant physiology brought him international recognition, yet he was deeply uncomfortable with the idea of scientific knowledge being treated merely as private property. His life reflected a belief that knowledge ultimately carries a responsibility to humanity.

Democratic public life requires precisely this sense of larger purpose.

In a democracy none of the institutional positions nor the political parties own the Republic. The people do. Every institution and every political leader, therefore, has a duty to protect the trust placed on them by the people.

The government cannot build confidence merely by announcing schemes, invoking civilisational ideals or repeating slogans. Transparency, fairness, accountability and demonstrable outcomes are what convert promises into credibility.

The Opposition has an equally important responsibility. It cannot rebuild public confidence if every government action is approached with an assumption of bad faith. Opposition is indispensable to democracy; permanent disbelief is not the same as democratic scrutiny. Criticism becomes meaningful when it engages evidence and offers an alternative.

Institutions face a similar obligation. Autonomy and independence cannot merely be claimed; it must be demonstrated. Authority may confer institutional power, but only conduct confers institutional credibility.

The Indian armed forces offer another useful lesson in leadership. Their ethos recognises that responsibility flows downwards while legitimate needs and concerns flow upwards. Those who command carry greater responsibility. Political leadership could benefit from more of that understanding: public office is ultimately a responsibility, not merely an opportunity to win the next election.

The government and Opposition do not have to trust each other's politics. They do, however, need to trust the democratic process—and demonstrate that trust through their conduct.

The Parliament must show that disagreement can coexist with deliberation. Institutions must demonstrate that their loyalty is to the Constitution, not to whoever happens to occupy office. Political leaders must show that public interest can rise above partisan advantage.

Perhaps that is the real lesson of the seemingly trivial BRICS vegetarian dinner menu controversy. It would be unfortunate if an international summit intended to showcase India's civilisational diversity became another battlefield in India's domestic political war.

India is too diverse to have one compulsory idea of food, culture, identity or ideology. But India is also too important to allow every disagreement to become an accusation of bad faith.

When trust disappears, even a menu becomes political.

When trust exists, disagreement remains disagreement.

That is the difference between a functioning democracy and a deeply polarised one.

For this year’s Ganesh Festival, perhaps the most appropriate invocation is therefore not another political slogan but a simple civic prayer: remove the obstacles to trust.

And then let our political leaders do what science and India's own experience have taught us to do—not merely speak, not merely promise, not merely accuse, but demonstrate, to create trust and learn to walk the talk.

The Republic cannot live on slogans alone. It lives on trust. And trust, like science, must ultimately be demonstrated by what we do.

Image: Courtesy Gemini AI

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Shivaprasad Khened

Senior Advisor CSMVS Museum, Mumbai.

Former Director Nehru Science Centre and NGMA Mumbai & Trustee, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Mumbai