Sukanta dials rail mantri on ‘veg-only’ Vande menu
Times of India | 28 January 2026
Kolkata: After a controversy surfaced over "only vegetarian" food served on the sleeper coach of the Howrah-Kamakhya Vande Bharat, junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar dialled Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday to start non-vegetarian food, keeping in mind the food habits of the people of Bengal.
Later, PTI quoted an Eastern Railway official as saying that non-vegetarian food options will soon be available. "Non-vegetarian food options are likely to be available on the menu of the Vande Bharat sleeper within about 1 week," the ER official told PTI.
"I spoke with railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. I informed him that Trinamool is creating a political narrative while claiming that only vegetarian food is being served on the Vande Bharat sleeper. They alleged that there is no non-vegetarian option. However, the railway minister told me that they started the service with vegetarian meals initially. Non-vegetarian options will also be available soon. The people in Assam and Bengal are primarily non-vegetarian and their choice of food will be kept in mind," Majumdar said.
After the Howrah-Kamakhya Vande Bharat was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi on Jan 17, TMC raised the issue of "only vegetarian" food on the train and took aim at BJP for "policing our plates". While TMC and other opposition parties in Bengal continued to step up the heat over the govt trying to control food habits, Bengal BJP stayed away from the controversy, claiming that the ministry of railways decides the menu.
While Majumdar did not specify when non-vegetarian meals would be available on the Vande Bharat sleeper, he said: "Services need to be introduced gradually and not at once."
Condemning TMC for spreading a false narrative, Majumdar said the railways had no plan to exclude non-vegetarian meals on the Vande Bharat sleeper. For now, the menu was set with only vegetarian options, but non-vegetarian meals will be added soon, he added.
Trinamool alleged: "First, they policed our votes. Now, they're policing our plates. Today, it's what we eat. Tomorrow, it's what we wear, whom we love, how we live. What we're witnessing is the ‘Banchte Chai, BJP Tai' model, where Bengalis are pushed into submission by Bangla-birodhi zamindars imposing monolithic, homogenised identities on our plural ethos."