'Kahani puree filmi hai': Don’t need tomato festival, say activists

The famous La Tomatina festival held in Spain during the last week of August is a tourist attraction. Event organisers are planning to replicate it in the city and in a couple of other places as well.

Thousands of tomatoes might just be thrown about just for fun, but not if the chief minister intervenes and bans this wasteful activity, say a few Bangaloreans who are signing an online petition. The petition, No La Tomatina, hopes to get 5,000 signatures in the next five days, well in time for the chief minister to stop the event scheduled for September 18.

“Wasting precious food must not become a part of our culture in India while there are millions of Indians who go hungry every day. We must stop the La Tomatina festivals in Bangalore and Mysore. They’ve been banned in Delhi due to public protest and we can ban it Karnataka,” the petition said.

It also said: “Let’s call on our new chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda, to stand up for justice, safety and conservation and to ban this event and all related events. Sign this petition.”

Activists, students, and professionals are slamming the wastage of food in a country where 25% of the world’s hungry and poor live and around 43% of children aged below five suffer from malnutrition, according to the 2011 World Food Programme Report in India.
“Do not copy bad things blindly from the world. Be practical. Feel for those who are foodless. Donate the tomatoes and money to them. You will get more joy than throwing tomatoes,” said a petitioner.
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