Warangal: Brahmanical norms forcing eating habit changes, says Official

Warangal: Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district collector, Akunuri Murali, who recently earned praise from all quarters for admitting his pregnant daughter in a state-run hospital for childbirth, was once again in the news on Friday, albeit for the wrong reasons.

Mr Murali made some rather controversial statements about Brahmanical culture, but later in the evening offered a public apology.

Speaking on the importance of eating meat at a programme organised on the occasion of World TB Day, Mr Murali said that while it was illegal to kill peacocks and deer for their meat, he said that the government and forest department have decided to legalise killing of wild boars.

However, he said that Brahmanical culture was maligning the age-old habits of eating meat among the public. “Brahmanical culture has set several norms about a person’s eating habits. They are obstructing a person from eating what he likes. Several elderly people have told me that they used to be healthy when they used to eat beef. Now that Brahmins have opposed slaughtering of cows, they are not able to eat beef,” Mr Murali said.

Later in the evening, in a statement Mr Murali apologised for the comments saying he did not mean to hurt the feelings of Brahmins through his words.

“I wanted to tell the people that eating meat is good for health. I should not have made such comments. I request the Brahmin community to forgive me,” he said in the statement.