Mumbai’s mutton traders have gone to court as a controversial meat ban began today that the ruling BJP is insisting on enforcing and its ally, the Shiv Sena has vowed to scuttle. Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Narvnirman Sena or MNS has said it will sell meat today to defy the order.
The Bombay High Court will hear tomorrow, the plea of the mutton traders who say that the four-day ban on slaughter and sale of meat in Mumbai discriminates against their right to a livelihood.
The ban has been imposed in view of Paryushan, a Jain festival of forgiveness.
Meat shops are open in Mumbai today, but the city’s main government-run abattoir in the city’s Deonar is closed. That means, there will be no supply tomorrow, say angry meat shop owners.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena and the BJP, has prohibited the slaughter and sale of meat and chicken in Mumbai on four days – today, Sunday, September 17 and 20.
Sources said the BJP had asked for the number of days to be extended to eight, but that was rejected by the civic body.
The Shiv Sena says there must be no ban at all.
In Mira-Bhayander, a town on the outskirts of Mumbai with a sizeable Jain population, the BJP is fighting to ensure that the eight-day ban it wants is not trimmed to two days.
The meat ban during the Jain fast was introduced in 1994 by the then Congress government. Ten years later, the two-day ban was extended to four days, but has never really been implemented, officials say.
The Sena, which has a majority in the BMC, finds itself on the same side on the meat ban as the opposition Nationalist Congress Party or NCP and the Congress, which had introduced the ban but is now protesting against it.
The opposition parties as well as the Shiv Sena have alleged a political move by the BJP to appease the Jain community in Mumbai, with an eye on elections to the civic body in 2017.
