NEW DELHI: Cow slaughter banned and beef exports damned, the BJP government at the Centre is on the horns of a new dilemma: can students pursuing hotel management opt out of non-vegetarian cooking that is a mandatory part of their coursework now? The idea may leave a sour taste with the hospitality industry Ministers are nevertheless engaged in trying to build up consensus on whether students, even if they don’t want to, must necessarily learn non-vegetarian cooking as part of hotel management courses. The latest trigger for the soul searching has come in the form of a letter written by Textile Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar to HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma in which he says such courses should not make it mandatory for students to learn to cook non-vegetarian cuisine. This, he says, is proving to be a hindrance for a lot of vegetarians who want to pursue hotel management as a career option.Gangwar’s letter, a copy of which is with ET, cites an unnamed survey that estimates that 40% of India’s population is vegetarian. Based on these figures, Gangwar argues that several vegetarians from Jain, Brahmin and Vaishya communities cannot pursue their dream of learning hotel management because of the compulsory component of cooking non-vegetarian food."This is a legitimate concern and needs debate and discussion. I am not against non-vegetarians, which is why I have only requested that the compulsory component of nonvegetarian cuisine should be made optional. We’ll also approach MPs to raise this issue in Parliament," Gangwar told ET. He is not alone in espousing these views. His views are echoed by other BJP MPs ranging from veteran LK Advani to the Yuva Morcha chief Anurag Thakur.An online petition started by a Pune-based chartered accountant CR Luniya on portal Change.Org arguing for nonveg cooking to be made noncompulsory has managed to get some 2,500 signatures.His letters to a clutch of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs has prompted some of them, all BJP MPs, to also weigh in. While Irani is abroad on official work and wasn’t available for comment, government sources told ET that Gangwar’s request doesn’t fall within the purview of HRD Ministry’s mandate. Hotel management institutes come under the purview of the tourism ministry.Sharma declined comment saying he hasn’t examined the proposal and will only say anything once he has discussed it with his officers. The tourism ministry is engaged in reworking India’s hotel management curriculum in collaboration with the Swiss-based Lausanne University, which has one of the best hospitality management schools in the world.While there exist very few recent studies on the food habits of Indians, the oftenquoted study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United States in 2007 indicated that Indians had the lowest rate of meat consumption in the world.The RSS has been campaigning for cow protection as well as vegetarianism for long. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has even called for a ban on beef exports from India. Two BJP-ruled states have even managed to fulfil the Sangh demands to some extent.Earlier this year, Maharashtra extended a ban on cow slaughter to bulls and oxen, and made the sale of beef punishable by up to five years in prison. A few weeks later, the Haryana passed a similar legislation. But despite what the parliamentarians may think, experts in the business of crafting food say segregating vegetarian and non-veg cooking in hospitality courses is a bad idea.Award winning chef Manish Mehrotra, who heads the kitchen of Indian Accent restaurant in New Delhi, says it’s an impractical idea in the real world. "Just like how you can’t expect a painter to just paint with the colour green, I don’t think it’s feasible to give hotel management students to cook only vegetarian food," he told ET over the phone from London."There are hardly any job opportunities for vegetarian chefs. You can’t provide this option to students without studying the market. Will these students find a job in a good restaurant or a good hotel after they have graduated? I know that I would not employ someone like that because I expect my chefs to taste what they serve to the customer," he added.