No place for food policing on I-Day

INDEPENDENCE Day is a celebration of freedom, not a test of conformity. Orders by several civic bodies to shut slaughterhouses and meat shops on August 15 confuse public administration with cultural policing and risk turning a unifying national moment into a food fight. People across parties have called the curbs an intrusion into personal choice — “what we eat is freedom” — and they are right. Reports indicate bans or closures in multiple cities, sparking a political row. National pride does not require homogenising diets or criminalising ordinary commerce, even briefly. Consider the facts. In Hyderabad, the Municipal Corporation ordered closure of slaughterhouses and beef outlets on August 15 and 16, drawing criticism from Asaduddin Owaisi, who termed the move “callous” and “unconstitutional”. In Maharashtra, the Kalyan-Dombivli civic body’s closure order provoked protests from traders and a backlash from leaders; Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar opposed the ban, arguing that such restrictions belong, if at all, to specific faith observances — not to a secular national day.