'Decision spreads hate': Owaisi decries Tuesday meat sale ban in Gurugram; demands rethink

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday disapproved of the shutting down of meat shops in Gurugram on every Tuesday citing the impact on people's income. Arguing that the nation should not run on the basis of religious sentiments, he pointed that the livelihood of meat sellers many of whom are non-Muslims will be at stake. The Hyderabad MP called upon BJP to withdraw this decision passed by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). While BJP had won only 14 out of 35 seats in the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, it later garnered the support of 12 more councillors. Thus, BJP managed to get its candidates Madhu Azad and Sunita Yadav elected as the Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively. 

On Twitter, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi remarked, "How can beliefs get hurt by what other people are doing in their private lives? People are buying, selling, or eating meat, they’re not forcing you to partake By this logic, close alcohol shops on Friday? Meat is food for millions of Indians. Cannot treat it as something impure."

MCG's decision on meat shops

On Thursday, the MCG cleared the proposal to shut down meat shops falling under its jurisdiction every Tuesday. Speaking to the media, BJP councillor Subhash Singla denied that this step was taken to appease the religious sentiments of anyone. According to him, there was a provision to close meat shops on any day of the week and Tuesday was selected during the meeting as not many people consume meat on that day. Moreover, the license fee for meat shops has been doubled from Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 and the penalty for running such shops illegally has been hiked to Rs.5,000. 

"Initially, I said it could be closed on Sunday, Monday or any other day. When it was agreed that meat shops should be closed on one day, I then stressed that it should be closed on Tuesday as meat consumption is already less on that day because of beliefs of some people. Tuesday was not selected because of religious sentiments of any community," he said.

(With PTI inputs)