Shiv Sena uses meat ban to criticise BJP’s ‘non-violence’

Using the ban on selling meat in five BJP-ruled states to take a dig at BJP, the Shiv Sena on Monday said India’s decision not to fire the first bullet at Pakistan in the time of ceasefire violations on the border was an epitome of the “non-violence” practiced by BJP.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh had last week assured a visiting Pakistani delegation that India would not fire the first bullet at its neighbour as it wanted cordial relations with all its neighbours.

“Talks of non-violence are going on everywhere. Some states, as part of supporting non-violence, have banned the sale of meat for a few days. The epitome of our non-violent behaviour was seen last Friday when Pakistani rangers, visiting India, were told by the Home Minister that our country wouldn’t fire the first bullet. Let Pakistan fire as much as it wants but we won’t fire,” the Sena said in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana. It further said that even as talks were underway on Friday, two soldiers fell prey to the “non-violence” being supported by the Union government. The Sena said that even though Mahatma Gandhi believed in non-violence, he too had to once kill monkeys and an insane dog in his ashram and had to educate people about killing rats when plague hit the Borsad taluka in Gujarat.

The Sena said that the row that had been created over banning sale of meat was uncalled for and that it had no intention of hurting the religious sentiments of any community.

“Jain brothers are not our enemies and we never asked them to leave the country. We only said that the sentiments of other people should also be taken into account before demanding a complete ban on meat,” said the Sena.