INDIA, September 5, 2012 (theprovince.com): HPI Note: Our readers have expressed interest in the proposed McDonalds at two sacred spots in India, so we are running a few more news items on the subject.
McDonald’s, home of the Big Mac, is facing Hindu protests over plans to open restaurants in two of India’s most revered religious centers and pilgrimage sites, despite promising that it will offer only vegetarian menus.
Katra in Jammu and Kashmir is home to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, one of Hinduism’s four holiest shrines, and an unlikely site for a restaurant chain that slaughters millions of cows every year. McDonald’s also is planning a second vegetarian restaurant in Amritsar, home of the Golden Temple, the centre of the Sikh religion in Punjab. Although Sikhs are not forbidden from eating meat, their temples serve only free vegetarian food in their kitchens to pilgrims and visitors.
The openings mark the chain’s latest attempt to win over people who have a passionate love of their own distinct spicy cuisine. Beef has not been on the menu since McDonald’s opened its first Indian store in Delhi in 1996, although it has kept its carnivore focus, serving chicken nuggets, sausage muffins and fish burgers, its local stores have become largely unrecognizable from their Western outlets.