India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) vice-president Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer has said that the UP government’s action on the storage and sale of Halal-certified products is “highly ridiculous and unfortunate.”
State government agencies have begun conducting raids at stores and malls across the state after the ban order on Halal-certified products issued by the Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA), Lucknow, on November 18. The ban order prohibits the manufacture, storage, sale and buying of Halal-certified products in the state. Ironically, the order exempts export of the Halal products.
Prof Salim said that it was beyond comprehension as to what message the UP government wanted to send to society and the nation by imposing a ban on Halal-certified products.
“The leader sitting at the helm of affairs in UP government must not forget that he is Chief Minister of 24 crores of people in UP who include followers of all religious denominations and it is his constitutional responsibility to ensure that no discrimination takes place against anybody, irrespective of caste and creed,” the JIH leader pointed out.
Prof Salim pointed out that “In every religion, there are certain things which are prohibited for the followers of that particular religion, and the Constitution of India clearly allows them to practice it.”
“The UP government’s action is evidently based on hatred against the Muslim community and Islam, irrational and against friendly and social goodwill,” Prof. Salim, who is also the convener of All India Dharmik Jan Morcha, and Sadbhavna Manch, comprising representatives from various religious communities, commented.
“If the erroneous decision of the UP government is considered justifiable, then writing pure vegetarian outside restaurants, mentioning ingredients on the cover of every product, writing sugar-free on sweets and other products, and Halal and Jhatka on meat shops be all declared illegal,” remarked the JIH leader.
However, he defended mentioning the details of ingredients on the container of the product, saying it simply helped the consumers and solved their problems in case of any confusion about the components present in the product.
The JIH leader observed that such kind of edict would only add to the confusion of customers and obstruct the growth of trade and investment. He pointed out that losses of such a retrogressive action would be suffered more by those for whom he wanted to emerge as “Hindu Hriday Samrat” (King of Hindu hearts), and not by those whose hostility had inspired him to take this step.
He appealed to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath “to fulfill his responsibilities to serve all the citizens as per the spirit of the Constitution and follow the Raj Dharma (judicious duties of the ruler towards his subjects) to ensure peace, justice and prosperity of all people.”
