Amitabh Kant is the NITI Ayog CEO and received the Best Administrator award at the NDTV Indian of the Year Awards 2015.
India is a democracy and if people want to eat beef they should be allowed to, top bureaucrat and CEO of the Prime Minister's policy think tank Niti Ayog, Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday night.
"I believe we are in a democracy, we should allow people to decide what they want to say, we should allow people to decide what they want to eat," he said.
Asked if that includes beef, he said, "Of course! There should be freedom of choice. I said it in the context of the fact that I come from the Kerala cadre. My neighbour was a Nair, the neighbour on my right was a Brahmin, they all ate beef."
Mr Kant was speaking at NDTV's Indian of the Year Awards, 2015.
Mr Kant is a Kerala cadre IAS officer and Secretary, Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy.
He has also been involved with some of the top government campaigns from Incredible India - which promotes India as a tourist destination globally - to the recently launched Startup India, which will facilitate startups and aims at improving ease of doing business.
Mr Kant took a swipe at actor Aamir Khan when he said, "And, everyone should be allowed to say what he wants to except when he is the brand ambassador of Incredible India."
Aamir Khan was the brand ambassador of Incredible India till last month. His remarks on intolerance had triggered a controversy in November last year - Mr Khan said his wife Kiran had asked if they should move out of India.
Mr Kant recently said the actor was damaging the brand he was a brand ambassador for.