Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel on Friday organised a "biryani party" at his residence here to mark his protest against the local civic body's order to keep the meat shops in the city shut on account of festivals.
He also hit out at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking to know why he did not direct the municipal commissioner to withdraw the meat ban order.
This year, Independence Day and Gokul Ashtami, a Hindu festival marking the birth of Lord Krishna, are being celebrated on Friday.
The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation on Tuesday announced the closure of slaughterhouses, outlets and shops selling meat within city limits on two days - August 15 and 20.
As per the order, slaughterhouses and meat shops were asked to remain closed on August 15 on the occasion of Gokul Ashtami. The same order was issued for August 20, which marks the beginning of 'Paryushan Parva', a key festival of the Jain community characterised by fasting and prayer.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Jaleel, a former MP, held a biryani party at his residence to express his opposition to the move.
Talking to reporters, he said, "I have cooked chicken biryani along with a vegetarian dish. If the municipal commissioner comes and asks for vegetarian food, then I will offer it to him. But the government should not tell us what we should eat and what we should not." "Such things should be stopped. This unfortunate decision (of meat ban) was taken on account of Independence Day," he added.
Targeting Fadnavis over the issue, the AIMIM leader said had the CM directed the commissioner to withdraw the order, the matter would have ended there.
"They say we can eat (meat) but it will not be made available in the market. What is the government trying to gain by issuing such orders?" he asked.
When pointed out that the meat ban was being implemented in view of Gokul Ashtami, he asked, "Is this festival being celebrated in some districts only? Hindus across the state are celebrating it. Had the government adopted a policy in this regard, then we would have respected it." "There are few over-enthusiastic municipal commissioners who issued these orders to make the government happy...Muslims have only two festivals (Ramzan and Bakri Eid). Will the government shut the liquor shops on these two festivals of Muslim community?" Jaleel asked.
Apart from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the municipal corporations in Nagpur, Nashik, Malegaon issued similar orders, leading to a controversy and raising issues related to personal freedom.
Opposition parties have also criticised the move, while the BJP has argued that the policy of keeping abattoirs shut on Independence Day was first implemented in 1988 when NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar was chief minister, and sought to know if the Opposition would question the veteran politician about it.
CM Fadnavis on Wednesday said the state government was not interested in regulating people's food choices and described the row over abattoir closures as an "unnecessary" controversy.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
