Bombay can eat all the meat it wants this week. Period. Various governmental bodies have been clamouring for eight, then four and finally a two day ban on the sale of meat, to ostensibly respect the Jain holy-week of Paryushan that began last Thursday. Under pressure from political outfits, meat-traders association and the courts, the government has relented and there will be no more restrictions on the sale of meat.
While there's always been a state-sponsored 4-day ban on the sale and slaughter of meat since 2004, it has never been strictly enforced and last Thursday, BJP ally Shiv Sena, openly mocked the ban by vending meat on public corners in open defiance of the ban.
To offset the backlash, the BJP then said the ban would be in force on the 13th, 17th and the 18th of September. That order too was withdrawn with only the 17th remaining as a day for the enforcement of the ban. On Monday, the high court hearing a petition by the meat trader's association quashed this date too, with the caveat that abattoirs would be shut on the 17th.
According to the Indian Express, the court said that there was no consistency with regard to implementing the ban on sale by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, who had only begun implementing the ban since 2013.
The meat ban was seen as a ploy by the BJP in Mumbai to influence the Jain community ahead of municipal election in 2017, but the court had severely chastised the government demanding to know whether the sale of fish too would be under the ambit of the ban.
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Also Read: Shiv Sena, MNS Defy Mumbai Meat Ban, Sell Chicken At Roadside Stall
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