The sale of meat will be banned in Bengaluru on Thursday
A one-day ban on the sale of meat has been announced in Bengaluru amid a controversy over similar restrictions in Mumbai and five states.
The Karnataka government has announced that meat will not be sold in the IT city on Thursday to mark the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Officials say the ban has been around for five years, and each year, meat is not sold on five or six days including Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2.
But the ban in Bengaluru - the first in a Congress-ruled state - has drawn attention amid a row in several other states.
A four-day meat ban imposed in Mumbai was reduced to just one day by the city's civic body and finally put on hold by a court amid protests by political parties including the ruling BJP's ally Shiv Sena, and a huge debate online.
The ban on the slaughter and sale of meat was enforced for a Jain fasting period "Paryushan"; it was challenged by mutton traders of Mumbai, who cited a massive loss of earnings. The court criticized what it called a "regressive step" in "progressive" Mumbai.
The ban was introduced in 1994 by the then Congress government. In 2004, the two-day ban was extended to four days but it had never really been implemented until a recent order.
Other BJP-ruled states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Chhattisgarh have also banned the sale of meat for the Jain fasting period.
Haryana has enforced it for the first time but as strong objections were raised, the state government clarified that it was not binding.
In Rajasthan, the ban has been enforced since 2008, both by the Congress and BJP governments, but this year, it has been extended by one day, which has angered some groups.
In Gujarat's Ahmedabad, slaughter of cattle has been banned for a week, like every year.