A political row has broken out after several municipal bodies across India ordered slaughterhouses and meat shops to remain shut on August 15.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) announced a two-day closure, on both Independence Day and Janmashtami (August 16). Similar bans were announced in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Malegaon and Nagpur.
Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi called the GHMC decision “callous and unconstitutional”.
He wrote on X: “What’s the connection between eating meat and celebrating Independence Day? 99% of Telangana’s people eat meat. These meat bans violate people’s right to liberty, privacy, livelihood, culture, nutrition and religion.”
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said such bans were wrong, Hindustan Times reported.
“In major cities, people of different castes and religions reside,” he said. “If it is an emotional issue, then people accept it [ban] for a day. But if you clamp such orders on Maharashtra Day, Independence Day and Republic Day, then it is difficult.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray targeted the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) order, calling for the commissioner’s suspension. “What we eat on Independence Day is our right, our freedom. They cannot tell us whether to eat,” the Opposition leader told ANI.
“ In our house, even during Navratri, our prasad has prawns and fish because this is our tradition. This is our Hindutva. Why are you entering our homes? The municipal corporation should focus on issues such as potholes on roads,” Thackeray said.
Many BJP leaders defended the move, pointing to a 1988 Maharashtra government order allowing municipal corporations to impose such restrictions on specific occasions, including Independence Day and Mahavir Jayanti.
KDMC deputy commissioner Kanchan Gaikwad said the order had been issued every year since 1988.
Ajit Pawar countered that such restrictions made sense only during religious observances like Ashadhi Ekadashi or Mahavir Jayanti and questioned why they were applied to national holidays.
According to India Today, the KDMC order has mandated closure of all slaughterhouses and licensed butcher shops from midnight of August 14 to midnight of August 15, with violators facing action under the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949.
What the Supreme Court has said over the years
The Supreme Court has, on several occasions, dealt with the question of official meat bans.
In 2008, while ruling on the constitutional validity of closing a slaughterhouse for nine days during a Jain festival in Ahmedabad, a two-judge bench observed: “A large number of people are non-vegetarian and they cannot be compelled to become vegetarian for a long period. 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.”
In 2018, hearing a PIL seeking a ban on meat exports, the court asked: “Do you want everybody in this country to be vegetarian? We can’t issue an order that everyone should be vegetarian.”
Similarly, in 2020, while hearing a plea to ban Halal meat, the Court remarked: “Tomorrow you will say nobody should eat meat?”
Earlier tensions during Shravan
The Independence Day orders come weeks after similar disputes during the Hindu holy month of Shravan, observed by many in north and west India, when many avoid meat and poultry products.
In Kolkata, home chef Tani Kaur alleged she was harassed by a delivery executive over a package containing pork. Kaur told The Telegraph Online, the rider questioned her decision to send meat during Shravan, sniffed the package, and made demeaning remarks after learning its contents.
In July, members of a right-wing group allegedly forced the closure of a KFC outlet in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, protesting against the sale of meat during Shravan and the Kanwar Yatra.
There was no official ban in the area, but the group reportedly confronted staff, chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Jai Shri Ram,” and pulled down the shutters.
