CJI DY Chandrachud on why he switched to veganism: ‘It’s about…’

Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud explained on Saturday as to why he switched to veganism. At an event, Chandrachud said, “… it is about following a lifestyle which does not accept cruelty.”
Chandrachud made the remarks during his inaugural address at the 9th Annual National Stakeholders Consultation on ‘Protecting the Rights of Children Living with Disability and Intersectionality of Disabilities’.
During his speech, Chandrachud spoke about his foster daughter, Mahi. He said she is a “fierce environmentalist” and “believes in living a cruelty-free life. She is a mother to 8 cats and single-handedly delivered a litter of 5 kittens…in the middle of the night.”
“She, in the course of living this life, has been telling us to pursue a cruelty-free life, and it took her 10 years to persuade me, and judges sometimes take long to be persuaded,” CJI Chandrachud said.
He said, “They were the reasons why I switched to veganism because veganism is not just about being a vegetarian and excluding dairy and honey from your diet. It’s also about following a lifestyle that does not accept cruelty.”
The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said he and his wife Kalpana foster two daughters – Priyanka and Mahi. He said, “our children have been born with a condition called Nemaline myopathy”.
He added that there is a great deal of transformative potential in children with disabilities. “They are just not children who are in need of care and protection but they have within themselves the ability to transform others,” he said.
He flagged problems faced by children living with a disability. “There was an absence of knowledge about this condition among doctors, caregivers and especially their parents. There were no testing facilities in major institutes in India, and in PGI, Lucknow told us that part of the tissue would be removed from both children by anaesthesia. So painful,” Chandrachud said.
He said gene therapy costs between from 7 crore to 30 crore for a single dose today. “Who can afford? But countries like India are making efforts to accessible treatment but that has to be a part of national policy supported by the government,” he said.