“Opposition should stop this. Some of them even went to the extent of calling the vegetarians impotent people. That shaming has to be stopped. People are free to eat what they want, they have full freedom to eat their choice of food. We had not taken any decision of imposing a ban on eating non-veg, it was an old government decision, and we were blamed for it,” the Chief Minister said.Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar also opposed the imposition of a ban on eating non-vegetarian food on August 15. He said they could understand shutting down slaughterhouses and mutton and chicken shops on certain religious occasions, but doing so on August 15 was unacceptable.“The Hindu community and its culture is very diverse. In some of the communities and regions, there is a tradition to eat non-veg on religious festivals and even offer non-veg prasad to gods and goddesses as well, so putting a ban on non-veg is not possible. In rural areas, it is very common to offer goat or chicken to local deities, so we as a government cannot stop that and change the tradition and food habits of the people,” Mr Pawar said.Meanwhile, the Kalyan and Malegaon municipal corporations are reconsidering their earlier decision to ban the consumption of non-vegetarian food.
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