Meat ban: Divisive, supremacist agenda

The directives issued by the mayors of the municipal corporations in Delhi to shut down meat shops in the city during the Navratri festival are wrong and ill-motivated. The ban is an infringement on the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens. People have the right to choose what they eat and the right to earn their livelihood. These rights cannot be arbitrarily denied. If one section of people does not eat meat during certain days, that cannot be a reason for the State to tell others not to eat it and deny them the opportunity to sell or buy it. Such ‘food policing’ has no place in a democracy. It is another weapon sought to be used by Hindutva fanatics to target Muslims who own and operate meat shops. It is yet another majoritarian excess and is in the same class of hostile and prejudiced actions like the moves on hijabs in classrooms and the ban on Muslim traders at Hindu fairs.

The courts have in many rulings upheld the right of people to choose their food. In the Puttaswamy ruling in 2017, the Supreme Court said that the “choice of food habits’’ is a part of the right to privacy which should be protected. In another judgement, it said, “What one eats is one’s personal affair and it is a part of his right to privacy which is included in Article 21 of our Constitution.” Courts have also made it clear that butchers and their workmen have the right to practise their trade and that cannot be denied for a length of time. A Bombay High Court judgement of 2017 said that “if the State tells the citizens not to eat a particular type of food or prevents the citizens from possessing and consuming a particular type of food, it will certainly be an infringement of the right to privacy.’’ These are flagrantly violated now. There are reports that similar bans have been imposed in some towns in UP also.

The trend of banning meat in places associated with Hinduism, Hindu majority areas or during Hindu festivals is intensifying. It is illegal and unconstitutional, backed only by a Hindu supremacist sentiment, not by the Constitution or law. By the same token, should Muslims demand that restaurants should be shut down during Ramzan in areas where they are in a majority? Food is actually an excuse. The real intent of these campaigns is to segregate Muslims and to control, oppress and persecute them as part of a Hindutva agenda of domination. This is bad and divisive politics, and it is being backed by the State and enforced by vigilantes. Does the slogan “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishvas” agree with this politics?