A few months back when the Akhilesh government was in power, municipal officials had taken rounds of the area where meat was sold and animal were slaughtered. They collected money from those who didn’t have licences to get their documents made. Neither the documents were made, nor is the money yet refunded. After few months, BJP came to power and without notice or warning just announced the closing of these slaughter houses without licence. Shutting down meat shops will alienate Muslims and further away from mainstream. I wonder if that’s the ultimate goal of the right-wing Establishment. Make life miserable for Muslims to the extent that they revolt, so that they can be killed in droves. Instead of closing down, can the government of UP come up with a plan of setting up a huge Meat shops and allocate to the road side shop owners at reasonable rent or lease? And can they not set standards thereafter on how the shop should be maintained else cancel the lease? Can they not decide on the place where they can setup such meat markets so that it does not get in the way of the Hindu religious places or Hindu dominant localities?
Jayesh Shah
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
