MUMBAI – In Maharashtra, the debate over a prohibition on selling meat on Independence Day has gotten worse. The civic bodies of Malegaon, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, and Nagpur have all followed the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) and made similar orders. This has caused a political fight, with leaders of the opposition and even members of the ruling alliance strongly disagreeing.
Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister and president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), disagreed. He said, “It is not right to close meat shops on days like Independence Day, Republic Day, or Maharashtra Day.” He said that these are not religious events where such bans would be fair, and he also pointed out that many communities, especially in the Konkan belt, have traditional diets that include non-vegetarian food.
Opposition Criticizes “Food Policing”
The Opposition has been very outspoken in its criticism. Aaditya Thackeray, a leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), said he will eat non-vegetarian cuisine on August 15 and demanded for the firing of the municipal commissioners who made the order. He said that the restriction is a “imposition of vegetarianism” on a state where many Hindu communities, like his own, have traditions of eating meat. He said that it was against people’s freedom for civic leaders to tell them what to eat.
Bala Nandgaonkar of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has asked the government to change its mind, and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar called the ban a way for the government to “divert people’s attention from important issues like bad roads, traffic jams, and pollution.”
The ruling party defends its actions by pointing to past cases.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a key member of the government alliance, justified the move by invoking precedence in response to the backlash. Navnath Ban, a spokesperson for the BJP, tweeted on X (previously Twitter) a state government decision from May 12, 1988. He said that this order gave municipal corporations the ability to close meat stores on national holidays including Independence Day and Mahavir Jayanti. Ban further said that a similar order was carried out in Nagpur in 2021 under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. He asked why the opposition leaders who were part of that government didn’t say anything at the time.
The KDMC has also said that the directive is not new; it has been given every year since 1988 as part of a civic resolve to keep the peace and show respect for national holidays.