MNS forces open fish, meat shops

MNS party workers sell chicken at Agar Bazar Market, Dadar on Monday morning. (Photo: Debasish Dey)

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) held massive protests in Dadar on Monday morning and sold chicken and fish at the market in protest of the self-imposed ban on sale of meat by shopkeepers during Paryushan, a Jain festival. Also, party workers forced open shops that had downed their shutters.

Even though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) imposed a ban only on the slaughter of animals on one day —— August 29, all shops in prominent markets remain shut during the first four days of Paryushan.

In its defence, the MNS said that the ban is only on animal slaughter and not on the sale of meat, and, since all shops remain shut due to societal pressure, it wanted to protest against this “religious monopoly”.

The MNS protests were spearheaded by the party’s leader in the BMC, Sandeep Deshpande, and over 50 party workers gathered and sold meat at the Dadar market for over an hour on Monday morning.

The assistant commissioner of the G north ward, Ramakant Biradar, rushed to the spot and confiscated the stands that were set up for selling meet. Mr Biradar said, “We took some police with us and took action against the people gathered there, as the stalls were illegally set up on the footpath and streets without the ward’s permission.”

Mr Deshpande challenged the ward officer to take action against his party workers. He said, “I may be facing potential arrest for spoiling the peace of the area on the day of a festival, but there is nothing legally wrong with what we did. The ban is on slaughter of animals, not sale of meat. The BMC has no grounds for booking us or lodging an FIR against our party workers.” He claims that the self-imposed ban is against the Fundamental Right to work. He said, “This is how the shop keepers earn money; to ban their businesses for any number of days is not fair. Those who are against it, need not purchase meat.”

Meanwhile, the BMC issued a note clarifying that the BMC has shut the Deonar abattoir on August 29 and will do so again on September 5, for Paryushan and Ganesh Chaturthi respectively. However, the sale of meat is not banned.