After meat ban for Paryushan and Ganpati, a cheeky online petition calls for ‘vegetable ban’ on Eid

The meat ban imposed in several parts of India has courted a great deal of controversy, ranging from the actual ban to the violent reactions against it. But the biggest bone of contention about the meat ban has been the reason behind it. Be it the Paryushan period for Jains or Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, the enforcement of a meat ban has disturbed a large section of people due to its religious motivations, as the slaughter and sale of animals during holy days was considered offensive to certain communities. [caption id=“attachment_2441848” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The online petition. Screebgrab from change.org[/caption] As a response, and with the aim of creating mischief as he says on his Twitter account, a Bengaluru-based filmmaker Falah Faisal, has launched an online petition asking the government to ban vegetables on the occasion of Muslim festival Bakr-Eid. Faisal’s argument is simple, that it is only right for minorities to have a say. “With the meat ban being enforced on us due to various religious reason, I think it is only rightful for us minorities to have a say,” reads the petition. The petition is highly critical of the logic of the meat ban and demands a ‘veggie ban’ offering arguments like ‘plants have feelings too’ and that ‘reports state that the levels of pesticide present in vegetables is on the rise, which means they are actually harmful for us.’ However, if the ban on vegetables is too much, then Faisal offers an alternative by inviting everyone, irrespective of religion, to eat mutton biryani at his house on Eid as he is ‘willing to be reasonable and willing to make a compromise’. The petition has only about 136 supporters at the the time this was written but it will be interesting to see how far this goes before Eid on 25 September. The meat ban began with the municipality of Mira-Bhayander near Mumbai, where the municipal corporation passed a resolution — during the Jain fasting period of Paryushan — banning the sale of meat for eight days. Mumbai soon followed suit, banning the sale of meat for four days. This was followed by Bengaluru where the civic body BBMP banned the sale of meat within its limits on the day of Ganesha Chaturthi on 17 September Soon enough, the ban fever caught on in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana among others. Here’s the complete guide to meat bans in India.