The directive by the mayor of the BJP-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation on shutting down meat shops during the nine-day festival of Navratri is retrograde, the controversy it has kicked up is dispiriting. In a country of many religions and festivals, the mayor’s directive seeks to cramp fundamental rights and freedoms – the individual’s right to choose what she eats and when, and also, importantly, her right to livelihood. The row can be seen as the latest part of a dismal and spreading pattern of majoritarian excess, and the targeting of the minority community – a line runs through the attempt to proscribe the hijab in the classroom in Karnataka, and the proposed ban on meat during Navratri in Delhi. The mayor’s directive must be snubbed by the BJP which rules Delhi’s three civic bodies. If the BJP fails to do the right thing, however, the court must step in.
The mayor’s directive does not just affect the shops and citizens of South Delhi. Its deleterious effect runs wider and deeper. As the custodian of citizens’ rights and liberties in a diverse democracy, the court has played a seminal role in expanding the space for freedoms. It must now step in, draw the constitutional red line in Delhi.
