Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh on November 18 imposed a complete ban on making, selling and possessing Halal certified products. Only exported food items have been exempted from this ban. Food department officials are continuously conducting raids in all the districts of the state and seizing Halal certified products. Now the demand to ban Halal certified products has started in Bihar and Maharashtra also. On Thursday, Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh wrote a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanding a ban on the sale of Halal certified products in Bihar. Giriraj Singh says that the business of giving Halal certificate has reached Rs 1 lakh crore and this money is being used in anti-national activities. Giriraj Singh said that efforts are being made to Islamise in the name of Halal products and this will not be tolerated. Nitish Kumar did not say anything on Giriraj Singh’s demand but Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said that all these are useless things, BJP only knows how to instigate religious sentiments and make Hindus and Muslims fight.
While addressing an election rally in Hyderabad, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also supported the Halal ban and said Halal certificates, triple talaq and polygamy should be banned. There is a demand to ban Halal products in Bihar as well as Maharashtra. Maharashtra BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the Maharashtra government will take a decision in this regard very soon but the public itself should boycott Halal certified products. Sandeep Deshpande, leader of Raj Thackeray’s party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, said that attempts to create monopoly in the market in the name of Halal will not be tolerated. But Muslim organizations are strongly opposing the ban on Halal certified products and are cursing Yogi Adityanath. Since this issue has now reached Maharashtra, many Muslim leaders in Mumbai reacted to it. The most scathing statement was given by Maulana Khalil ur Rehman Noori of Raza Academy. Maulana Noori said, what does the government care about what someone eats, what goods he uses? Maulana called Yogi Adityanath a terrorist. Maulana Noori said that BJP is doing such activities keeping the elections in mind. Congress and its allies opposed the ban on Halal products.
Trinamool Congress leader Majid Memon termed banning Halal certified products as wrong. Majid Memon said that Halal products are not for non-Muslims, hence those who do not want to buy should not buy Halal certified products, what is the need to ban them? Congress leader Hussain Dalwai also opposed the demand to ban Halal products in Maharashtra. Hussain Dalwai said that BJP leaders raise issues that divide the society to win elections. He said that it is not necessary for anyone to eat Halal products, it is a matter of personal choice. After Yogi’s decision, there will be a demand to ban Halal certified products in all the states and this will cause problems to the Chief Ministers of those states. Problems will arise in states where opposition parties are in power. Nitish Kumar will face the biggest problem because Muslims use Halal certified products. Nitish and Tejashwi cannot do anything that would anger Muslims. There are a lot of Muslim voters in Bihar, but it is clearly visible that leaders like Giriraj Singh will make it an issue. They will ask why Halal certificate is stamped on vegetarian products? Where does the income from this go? So it will be difficult for Nitish Kumar to answer. This issue is not that big in Maharashtra. There, Raj Thackeray has also been demanding to ban Halal products for the last many years, the problem here will be for Uddhav Thackeray, what stand will he take on this issue?
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