BENGALURU: Raising a new controversy, BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi said the sale of 'halal' meat amounts to "economic jihad". "When Muslims refuse to buy meat from Hindus, why should Hindus buy meat from them?"
Ravi questioned, adding that if Muslims agree to eat non-halal meat, then Hindus too will agree to eat halal meat. 'Halal' is a way of slaughtering meat among Muslims. The meat issue is the latest among a string of polarising issues taken up the BJP and its affiliate organisations.
Ravi's statement comes a day after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's political secretary MP Renukacharya called for the state government to ban madrasas, saying that issues "opposed to national interests" are taught there.
Meanwhile, JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy said the government should take action against miscreants who are instigating Hindus not to buy from Muslim traders.
"Even after such blatant attempts by vested interests to communalise issues, the government has not taken any action. It should remember it is a government of 6.5 crore people of Karnataka. I have seen provocative posts on WhatsApp, those behind these mischievous posts should be arrested and dealt with as per law. I appeal to Hindu youths not to allow the harmony of the state to be destroyed," Kumaraswamy said.
In the backdrop of these controversies, a group of intellectuals has written to Bommai, calling for a clampdown on rising incidents of hate, and hate messages. "It is a shameless work to deliberately instil religious hatred in Karnataka, which is considered a garden of peace and harmony," they wrote.
They also placed a set of demands before him: that girls be allowed to wear the hijab, discrimination against Muslim traders should stop at fairs and festivals, those seeking to provoke communal hatred be dealt with firmly, and the proposal to introduce Bhagwad Gita in schools be scrapped.