Abdul Rashid Kohli, senior govt officer suspended for saying “Rig Veda Permits Meat Eating”

A senior government official was suspended for saying that the Rig Veda allows the eating of meat, which according to the Jammu and Kashmir administration had the potential to create law and order problems.

According to The Telegraph, Abdul Rashid Kohli, the assistant commissioner (panchayat), was suspended by the Rajouri district magistrate Vikas Kundal on Tuesday night for allegedly making “objectionable remarks about a particular religion”. A probe was also instituted, the newspaper said.

A BJP leader has also sought action against Kohli for making the comments.

“This office has received a complaint that AC Panchayat has made some objectionable remarks about a particular religion,” the suspension order issued by Kundal said, according to The Telegraph. The order claimed that Kohli’s comments had the potential to create law-and-order problems and that the official had violated service conduct rules.

According to The Telegraph, the action was initiated after one of the four subordinates – with whom Kohli made the remark – complained to the administration.

The officer told the newspaper that while he and four village-level workers (VLWs) – two Hindus and two Muslims – were having lunch at a restaurant in Rajouri, Jammu, a discussion came up about non-vegetarian food.

“I had read on the Internet that the Rig Vega allows non-veg food, and asked why two of them (the Hindus) differed. After that, we parted peacefully. I never realised that he (one of the Hindu VLWs) had felt offended. Had he told me, I would have apologised. I never intended to offend him and never asked him to eat non-veg food. But late in the evening, I learnt that he was registering a complaint,” he was quoted as saying.

The BJP general secretary Vibodh Gupta, however, alleged that Kohli had asked his Hindu subordinates why they had not ordered non-veg food. “We don’t want his suspension; he should be fired. We request the police to lodge an FIR under Section 153 IPC (provocation with intention to cause riot) so that the community against which objectionable remarks have been made will feel that there has been action,” he told The Telegraph.