Hindutva Outfits Forcefully Shut Meat Shops During Navratri in Several Cities.

Hindus in Action…. Hindu Sena, Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Bajrang Dal on Roads..

Meat shops in Najafgarh area ‘forcibly’ closed by Hindu Sena men in Navratri days, Delhi Police say no complaints so far. Same reports came from some other states also.

Sumedha Singh | HENB | New Delhi | Oct 15, 2021:: A group of men from the Hindu Sena allegedly forcibly shut meat shops in Delhi’s Dwarka district on Thursday and demanded that all such shops stay shut during Navratri. Police, however, said they have not received any complaint and added that the meat market was already shut and no shop was forced to close.

A video of the men going around a meat market in Najafgarh’s Som Bazaar and raising slogans was uploaded online on Tuesday. In the video, the men say all meat markets have been shut during Navratri. “We found that one-two shops (meat shops) were still open. They have also been shut now…,” said the man who shot the video.

As the country is celebrating Navratri festival from 7 October to 15 October this year, videos from the past few days have been surfaced online that members of several Hindutva outfits forcefully shutting down meat shops in states such as Delhi, Haryana and in some areas of Noida and Gaziabad in Uttar Pradesh adjacent to Delhi.

Hindu Sena national president Vishnu Gupta confirmed that a few activists were sent to Najafgarh, who filmed the video. “Our workers went to Najafgarh on Tuesday and today to close all meat shops in Som Bazaar. We want these shops to be shut only for nine days to respect sentiments of Hindus. I don’t think this would affect anyone’s business as people don’t eat meat during Navratri anyway. Hindu meat sellers had already shut their shops, others should too. Our workers didn’t attack anyone. Vendors and sellers in the market cooperated with us. There was no violence,” he said.

Meat sellers and other vendors at the market said the men came and told, ‘the Hindu sentiments of the areas must be maintained. Hindus of that area don’t take meat during Navratri. So the meat shops must be closed during the Navratri festival’.

Kamal, who owns a chicken shop in the area, said, “I was asked to shut my shop and I did. The men said I can start selling meat after Navratri. We didn’t want to argue or fight with them. Residents might also be involved and I don’t want to get into trouble. So, I have closed the shop for a week.”

Another shopkeeper, who refused to be named, said, “We sell meat and fish, and a few restaurants and families were buying meat from us. The Hindu Sena men came and demanded that we shut our shop for Navratri. They asked me to pull down the shutter. I didn’t fight and left the shop with my father. What else can we do?”

Vishnu Gupta, the president of the Hindu Sena, later confirmed that members of the local unit of the group had visited the market.

“Last year, we did this in Gurugram and the video went viral. We keep doing this. We want that Hindu tyohar pe shanti bani rahe… (Peace should be maintained on Hindu festivals),” said Aman Kumar, who heads the Najafgarh unit of the Hindu Sena.

The Quint reports, “in a Facebook live broadcast done from Faridabad, which has since gone viral, a group of men claiming to be from the Bajrang Dal, are seen coercing meat shops to shut. The Facebook broadcast was done by a Bajrang Dal member named Jeet Vashisth on 7 October, who is heard saying that he had permission from the police commissioner to get the shops closed”.

The SHO of Mujesar police station, Sandeep Kumar, told Indian Express that the police spoke to the shopkeeper concerned and he has not filed any complaint. “We are yet to identify the group of men,” he said.

Similar scenes can be witnessed in another series of videos from Haryana’s Palwal, posted by Vikram Singh, who claims to be the district vice-president of Rashtriya Bajrang Dal founded by Dr Pravin Togadia.

He said in his post in Hindi, “For many days, there was continuous information that despite the festival of Navratri, some meat traders are not closing the meat shops, today again the workers of the organisation reached and forcefully closed all the shops along with the police administration and also warned shopkeepers that no one will open the shop until the fast of Navratri is completed.”

Earlier, on 5 October, several outfits under the banner of Samyukta Hindu Sangharsh had written to Gurugram deputy commissioner seeking directions to shut all meat shops during the festival.

Rajiv Mittal, a spokesperson for the group, was quoted as saying, “We have been protesting against this for the past 4 to 5 years. There are 150 registered meat shops in Gurugram. But there are thousands of shops that are running illegally. We have written to the Deputy Commissioner seeking their permanent closure”, Times of India reported.

…

__Inputs from The Quint | TOI | Indian Express.