Karnataka likely to get law against Halal: What does this mean

Bengaluru, Dec 20: A proposal to bring a Bill against Halal meat in Karnataka is likely to be tabled in the Karnataka Legislative Session during the ongoing session.

The ongoing session has already seen a war of words between the BJP and Congress over the portrait of Veer Savarkar. The demand by the BJP is being linked to the upcoming elections next year. B JP MLA N Ravikumar demanded the Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) to ban things other than certified food items.

The issue has been in circulation after several Hindu organisations such as The Hindu Janajagruti Samithi, Shri Ram Sena and Bajrang Dal taking to the streets opposing the sale of Halal meet. They demanded that the Hindus should not buy Halal meat from the Muslim shops. Shops selling meat were also asked to remove Halal from their display board.

Why is Halal being allowed?

There has been a lot of debate around this issue and many proponents of Halal said that Halal certificates is also there for non-meat products like vegetarian foods, cosmetics and other FMCG goods. They have also claimed that Halal certification is for purity and authenticity.

The question is if we accept the Halal certification on products would that mean the existing government certifications on consumer products such as the FSSAI and ISI are not valid?

To be sure Halal certification is purely religious. The basis of the certification is purely religious and it is decided whether a certain ingredient is allowed in Islamic faith or not.

The idea of Halal in India, a country with a population that is 80 per cent Hindu makes no sense. This also raises the question is how can there be a parallel system to certify products?

Further more the FSSAI does not give the Halal certificates. The religious bodies that issue the Halal certification are the Halal India Private Limited, Halal Certification Services India Private Limited, Jamiat Ulama-E-Maharashtra and the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Trust.

What is Halal and what is it doing in India:

Halal is an Arabic word which translates to permissible. The opposite of Halal is Haram which means forbidden. Halal is associated with the Islamic dietary laws and especially meat processed in accordance with those requirements.

The UK Food Standards Agency figures from 2011 say that 84 per cent of the cattle, 81 per cent of the sheep and 88 per cent of the chickens slaughtered for Halal meat were stunned before they died.

BJP's national general secretary, C T Ravi had told PTI Halal is economic Jihad. It means that it is used like a Jihad so that Muslims should not do business with others, Ravi had said.

The Halal certification is a guarantee that food is prepared in accordance with the Islamic law and is said to be unadulterated. In India the Halal certification is provided by a third-party body.