'Hindus neither need nor want them': Jammu march demands blanket ban on halal certification

JAMMU: A Jammu-based Hindu organisation took to the streets on Saturday demanding a complete ban on halal certification of products in Jammu and Kashmir, escalating a campaign that targets the economic life of the country's Muslims. The Jan Jagran Manch held its protest in Jammu on October 3, seeking a blanket ban on halal labels 'like in Uttar Pradesh', its leader told the press. 'Hindus neither need nor are interested in halal products,' he said, calling the certification 'an attack on the livelihood of Hindus and Sikhs'. The Manch wants halal certification 'restricted only to willing populations or essential items', and has asked the government to take over all certification through the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India instead of private institutions. 'We are not sure where the money raised through halal certification goes,' the leader added. The Manch claimed that halal certification was no longer limited to meat. 'Cement, iron, hotels, tourism, and medicines are brought under halal certification,' the leader said, alleging that private — meaning Muslim — organisations collect 'crores of rupees annually in the name of certification and renewal fees, with no transparency regarding fund tracking or usage.' The campaign is not happening in a vacuum. In November 2024 the Uttar Pradesh government banned the manufacture, storage, distribution and sale of halal-certified food products within the state, exempting only exports — a move the Supreme Court sought to examine in September, when a bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the UP government on petitions by Halal India Pvt Ltd and the Jamiat Ulama-E-Maharashtra. The petitioners argue the ban violates the fundamental rights to equality, trade, life, and religious freedom, and disincentivises the food preference of one particular religion without any rational basis — contrary, in their words, to the secular fabric of the nation. At the Centre, the proposed Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2025 would place halal certification exclusively under government control and criminalise all private halal certification bodies — with penalties of up to two years' imprisonment and fines of up to Rs 10 lakh. Traditionally, certification has been carried out by Muslim religious trusts, ulema-led institutions and waqf-linked bodies; the Bill would outlaw them and convert a centuries-old religious practice into a criminal offence. Who gets to certify what a Muslim eats is being settled not by the community that eats it, but by governments and street campaigns that neither eat it nor need it — and the answer, each time, narrows the space in which a minority can simply live.