13 August,2025 08:30 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
NCP chief Ajit Pawar has expressed displeasure over the meat ban decision. File pic
Several civic bodies across Maharashtra have directed meat shops to remain closed on August 15, drawing criticism from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Ajit Pawar, PTI reported. However, its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has defended the move, pointing to a 1988 state government order that allows municipal bodies to impose such restrictions.
Municipal corporations in Nagpur, Nashik, Malegaon, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Kalyan-Dombivli have issued directives to ban the sale of meat on Independence Day.
The BJP on Wednesday said that the practice of shutting abattoirs on Independence Day was introduced in 1988 when NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar was the chief minister of Maharashtra, reported PTI. The party questioned whether the opposition would now raise objections with Pawar himself.
Maharashtra BJP's chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye directed this query at NCP (SP) legislator Jitendra Awhad and Shiv Sena (UBT) Member of LA Aaditya Thackeray, amid the controversy over the closure orders.
Upadhye stated that the policy was first formulated by the Congress government under then Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan, reported PTI.
"Within a month in 1988, Sharad Pawar became the chief minister and implemented the policy for the first time," he said.
He added that during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government - which included Awhad and Thackeray as ministers - the same practice was followed without objection.
The MVA government, comprising the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), undivided NCP, and Congress, governed Maharashtra from November 2019 until June 2022.
"Will they seek a response from Sharad Pawar for taking such a decision back then? Will they criticise him too? Awhad and Thackeray should respond to it now," Upadhye said.
"Both (Awhad and Thackeray) have lost their (original) parties and government. Therefore, they are depressed and find fault with any decision to target the state government," he added.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the government had no interest in dictating people's food choices, calling the controversy over meat shop closures "unnecessary."
The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation has declared that slaughterhouses, meat outlets and shops will be shut on August 15 and August 20. The closures are in observance of Gokul Ashtami and Paryushan Parva, both religious occasions, reported PTI.
The order follows a similar one issued by the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) in Thane district.
Reacting to KDMC's decision, Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator Aaditya Thackeray had said the commissioner should be suspended, asserting that it was not the civic chief's role to decide on what people eat.
Awhad announced he would host a mutton party on August 15 in protest against the KDMC's directive.
The Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP-led government of deliberately creating distractions over "nonsensical" matters such as pigeon feeding and meat sales on Independence Day, instead of addressing real issues.
Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal told reporters on Wednesday that the BJP was fuelling caste and communal tensions for political gain.
"The Maharashtra government should not tell us what time we should eat meat, what spices or salt should we use; it should not try to control our personal habits, marriages, or our thinking process. Such things have no place in our state, but this government is deliberately doing it," he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar also expressed displeasure over the ban orders by some civic bodies, saying such restrictions were unwarranted.
Pawar said that these bans are typically observed on religious occasions such as Ashadhi Ekadashi, Mahashivratri and Mahavir Jayanti, and added that both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits are common across Maharashtra.
"It is wrong to impose such a ban. In major cities, people of different castes and religions reside. If it is an emotional issue, then people accept it (ban) for a day. But if you clamp such orders on Maharashtra Day, Independence Day and Republic Day, then it is difficult," Pawar said.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi also opposed the decision by municipal corporations to shut down slaughterhouses and meat shops on August 15, terming it as "unconstitutional", and sought to know the link between meat consumption and Independence Day celebrations.
"These meat bans violate people's right to liberty, privacy, livelihood, culture, nutrition and religion," the Lok Sabha MP told reporters in Hyderabad.
