In this editorial segment, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses the Uttar Pradesh government's recent decision to ban the sale, manufacture, and distribution of 'halal-certified' products in the state. This move has sparked a considerable debate. Halal certification indicates that products adhere to Islamic law and are suitable for consumption by Muslims.
It's noteworthy that the ban excludes halal-certified products meant for export, particularly to Middle Eastern countries where such certification is often a requirement. The government justifies the ban on the grounds of public health and the prevention of confusion. Specifically, it points out that halal certificates for vegetarian products, such as oil, soap, toothpaste, and honey, where certification is unnecessary, suggest a deliberate criminal conspiracy against a specific community and its products.
According to the government, the halal certification system creates confusion about the quality of food items and goes against the basic intention of certain regulations. The order cites Section 89 of the relevant Act as the legal basis for the ban. The government took this action following information that dairy items, sugar, bakery products, peppermint oil, salty ready-to-eat beverages, and edible oils were being labeled with halal certification.
The government claims that there is ongoing propaganda within a particular section of society to discourage the use of products lacking a halal certificate. This, according to the government, adversely affects the business interests of other communities. The decision to ban these products came shortly after the police in Lucknow booked a company and three organizations for providing ""illegal halal certificates"" to retail products in the state.
#yogiadityanath #halal #halalcertified #halalcertification #halalban #nirmalasitharaman #muslims #illegalhalalcertificates #uttarpradesh
It's noteworthy that the ban excludes halal-certified products meant for export, particularly to Middle Eastern countries where such certification is often a requirement. The government justifies the ban on the grounds of public health and the prevention of confusion. Specifically, it points out that halal certificates for vegetarian products, such as oil, soap, toothpaste, and honey, where certification is unnecessary, suggest a deliberate criminal conspiracy against a specific community and its products.
According to the government, the halal certification system creates confusion about the quality of food items and goes against the basic intention of certain regulations. The order cites Section 89 of the relevant Act as the legal basis for the ban. The government took this action following information that dairy items, sugar, bakery products, peppermint oil, salty ready-to-eat beverages, and edible oils were being labeled with halal certification.
The government claims that there is ongoing propaganda within a particular section of society to discourage the use of products lacking a halal certificate. This, according to the government, adversely affects the business interests of other communities. The decision to ban these products came shortly after the police in Lucknow booked a company and three organizations for providing ""illegal halal certificates"" to retail products in the state.
#yogiadityanath #halal #halalcertified #halalcertification #halalban #nirmalasitharaman #muslims #illegalhalalcertificates #uttarpradesh
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Namaskar, welcome to another episode of Editorial.
00:05 I have got a very interesting topic for you and my topic is, Uttar Pradesh government
00:13 has banned Halal certified food.
00:17 Uttar Pradesh government banned the sale of Halal certified products with immediate effect
00:23 and also probation on the manufacturer and distributor of Halal food in the state.
00:30 Uttar Pradesh has banned the sale.
00:34 Let's talk about it.
00:35 Let's get right into the show.
00:39 So let's first start with the concept of Halal.
00:42 What is Halal?
00:43 Halal is, in Arabic, Halal means permissible.
00:47 Simple terms.
00:48 Halal means permissible.
00:49 Number one.
00:50 Number two is Halal food actually means or Halal certified means that you see there is
00:55 a certain way that Muslims slaughter the animals and there are certain animals that Muslims
01:01 eat.
01:02 There are certain animals they can eat.
01:03 There are certain animals they can't.
01:05 So a permissible animal slaughtered in a permissible way is what you call as Halal.
01:12 So that's what the definition of Halal is.
01:15 Now you have companies that gives you Halal certification.
01:19 So you go to a large chain of fast food joints, certain fast food joints, certain pizza joints
01:25 and certain products in your supermarket, in your local supermarket, you will have the
01:29 certification says Halal certified.
01:33 It is Halal food.
01:34 It will be certified.
01:36 This is the status.
01:37 Now, Uttar Pradesh government recently banned.
01:40 They banned it statewide saying that no, we will not sell, allow anybody to sell Halal
01:46 product.
01:47 Why did they ban?
01:48 They banned this for three reasons, predominantly.
01:53 Reason number one, they said, koon hota tum Halal certificate dene ko?
01:56 Who are you to give Halal certificate?
01:58 If there is a body that is giving Halal certification, who is that body?
02:02 Who gave you the permission?
02:03 Who gave you the authority?
02:05 Under whose authority are you selling Halal food?
02:09 That's number one.
02:10 Number two, they say that, listen, why are you giving Halal certification to things like
02:14 soap and oil and things of that sort?
02:18 And vegetarian food and all.
02:19 Why are you giving Halal certification to that?
02:21 If you are giving Halal certification to that, that means you are trying to attract a particular
02:24 community, which means you are taking advantage over other products to attract that particular
02:30 community so that community will not pick up the other product, but pick up yours.
02:34 So that's unfair practice in the trade, isn't it?
02:37 So they are saying that therefore that they are not allowing.
02:39 And third is they're saying that, baba, listen, you know what, if when you are giving, you
02:43 are going to these people who are giving you certification, you are giving them money,
02:47 obviously for certification.
02:49 What money are they, how are they putting their money to use?
02:52 How do we know they are putting their money to use for the right reasons?
02:55 A, they are unauthorized.
02:56 B, what are they doing with the money?
02:58 So these are the three problems that Uttar Pradesh government raised.
03:01 So they said, what, you know, the answer to which is ban.
03:04 Ban Halal food in totality.
03:06 Thik hai na?
03:08 Thik hai.
03:09 Let's keep that aside.
03:10 Now let's look at India perspective.
03:12 Let's look at Indian government perspective.
03:15 Does Indian government allow or disallow or authorize, not authorize Halal food?
03:21 The Indian government has nothing to say about it.
03:24 The Indian government doesn't tell you eat Halal food.
03:27 The Indian government doesn't tell you don't eat Halal food.
03:29 The Indian government doesn't tell you, baba, you can put Halal on your pack.
03:33 The Indian government doesn't tell you, you can't put Halal on your pack.
03:36 Indian government says nothing about it.
03:38 It is up to the, it is up to the manufacturer, the seller, the marketer and the consumer.
03:43 Indian government doesn't interfere in it till now.
03:47 So now the situation is Uttar Pradesh says nahi bhejnega.
03:54 The first question, answering the first question, who has authorized these people to give Halal
04:01 certification?
04:02 Chalo, a valid question.
04:05 Who has authorized these people to give Halal certification?
04:08 Our finance minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, she said that food certification should be
04:15 done only by government agencies and not by non-governmental organizations.
04:22 She says, baba, it should be done by Food Safety and Standard Authority, FSSAI.
04:28 That is the one that will certify whether the food is edible, food is good, food is
04:33 of good quality or not.
04:34 There should be no other organization.
04:36 This is what she said while she was specifically answering this Uttar Pradesh ban story.
04:41 Okay, so that's one end of the story.
04:43 Theke isko side mein rakhte hai.
04:44 Now if you go to Google and search for government approved Halal authorities, government approved
04:53 Halal authorities, if you search in the Google, there is a name called Jamayate Ulema-e-Hind
04:59 Halal Trust in Delhi that comes up, that website comes up and they claim that they are government
05:06 approved Halal certification body.
05:09 So that's point number two.
05:11 Point number three is, the Uttar Pradesh government says that they have registered cases in Lucknow
05:15 against some entities for allegedly exploiting religious sentiments to boost sales by providing
05:21 Halal certificates to customers of a specific religion.
05:25 According to Uttar Pradesh government, these entities include as the Halal India Private
05:30 Limited Chennai, the same Jamayate Ulema-e-Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India
05:38 Mumbai and Jamayate Ulema Maharashtra among others.
05:43 So at one end, this trust says that we are authorized, on the other end, this trust,
05:48 the government says that they are not.
05:50 So one wonders what is right, what is wrong.
05:53 Let us talk about by using the word Halal, is it being unfair?
06:00 Are you playing with the sentiments of a particular religion or are you being unfair in your
06:07 trade practices or in your marketing trade practices?
06:10 Are you being unfair by putting the word Halal?
06:13 What does the government say?
06:14 The government says by, listen, if you put the word Halal in your brand, then possibly
06:18 a particular group of religion, religious belief will only come to your product and
06:22 buy your product because your product there is Halal written and they will not touch the
06:26 other products because there is no Halal written there.
06:28 Therefore, you get undue advantage of using that word Halal.
06:33 And why should you get that undue advantage in a soap, in perfume or in oil and all that?
06:38 Why should you get that undue advantage?
06:39 So that you are targeting it to one particular community.
06:42 Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough.
06:45 I am asking two questions.
06:48 You can take political advantage by using one community.
06:52 That's fair.
06:53 That's okay.
06:54 That's fine.
06:56 You can take political advantage.
06:57 But if you are putting Halal in a brand, which I don't necessarily think will give them a
07:02 huge brand advantage in an open market place because a brand is always bigger, you are
07:08 saying that they are taking undue advantage.
07:11 How fair is this debate?
07:12 The person who makes your law, he can play community, community.
07:17 But a soap cannot do, a soap cannot write Halal.
07:21 How fair is that?
07:23 Please think and let me know.
07:24 Please think and let me know.
07:26 Write down in the comment box below.
07:28 And as a marketer, let me tell you, again I repeat myself, I don't think by just putting
07:33 the word Halal, that brand will get huge market share and all that.
07:37 I don't think it is going to happen.
07:39 I don't think it is going to happen.
07:40 It is not going to have that kind of impact and all of that.
07:43 Especially you have a soap and you put Halal there.
07:45 I don't think it is going to have much impact on the sales of that product.
07:49 They may get a little market advantage.
07:50 I am not disputing that.
07:52 But that same market advantage, Godrej once tried when they launched a soap called Ganga.
07:57 They launched a soap called Ganga.
07:58 So Godrej tried that.
08:00 So wasn't that unfair then?
08:03 So how can that not be unfair and this be unfair?
08:05 So that's my point number two.
08:07 Now my point number three.
08:08 I will tell you one, one interesting factor before I close my day.
08:13 Ok, you know what is the biggest, one of the biggest exporters of meat and even sellers
08:17 of meat in India?
08:18 It is a company called Al-Kabir and I am sure a lot of you all must have heard about this
08:23 company Al-Kabir.
08:24 You know this Al-Kabir, you know who owns Al-Kabir?
08:27 Al-Kabir is owned by a gentleman called Satish Sabarwal, Hindu.
08:33 Al-Kabir owner Satish Sabarwal.
08:36 You know there is another company called Arabian Exports.
08:40 You know who owns Arabian Exports?
08:41 No, huge company, huge exporter, meat exporters.
08:44 You know who owns Arabian Exports?
08:46 Arabian Exports is owned by Viranath Nagat Kudumle, Vikas Maruti Shinde and Ashok Narang.
08:52 They are not Muslims.
08:55 They are from Maharashtra.
08:56 They are Maharashtrans.
08:57 Arabian Exports.
08:58 Ok, MKR Exports.
08:59 You know who owns MKR Exports?
09:02 Again huge meat exporters.
09:05 Sunny Abbot owns MKR Exports.
09:08 Not a Muslim.
09:09 Al-Noor Exports owned by A.S.Sood.
09:11 AOV Exports owned by Abhishek Arora.
09:14 All of these are top meat exporting companies.
09:18 Not a single one to the best of my knowledge that I have seen till so far, Standard Frozen
09:23 Foods Export owned by Kamal Verma.
09:26 Phoney Products Exports owned by S. Satish Kumar.
09:31 None of these companies are owned by a Muslim.
09:34 So these companies too get Halal certification when they have to export.
09:40 And these companies too go to the same certification companies to get their Halal export.
09:45 Now if they don't go to the same certification company and don't get that Halal certification,
09:50 they will not be able to export.
09:52 So is the government going to ask them to stop exporting till such time that they finalize
09:56 on this or ban Halal certification for them also?
10:00 Because what is good for the geese should be good for the gander.
10:03 So you are banning in India, you are banning in Uttar Pradesh, you should ban exports also.
10:06 Then you should say certification should not be allowed anywhere.
10:10 Is that fair?
10:11 This is the point I want to make.
10:12 The conclusion to what I want to say is as follows.
10:17 You see, if it doesn't harm the larger interest of our country, if it doesn't harm the larger
10:28 interest of our market, if it doesn't harm the larger interest of our economy, you see,
10:34 putting hindrances, putting laws, creating laws, creating hindrances for somebody to
10:42 practice their religion, it's not fair.
10:46 And it achieves no good.
10:49 That's the point I wanted to make through this editorial.
10:51 Till I see you next time, that's tomorrow at 10.
10:54 Namaskar.
10:54 Namaskar.
10:56 Namaskar.
10:57 Namaskar.
10:58 Namaskar.
11:00 Namaskar.
11:01 Namaskar.
11:03 Namaskar.
11:04 Namaskar.
11:05 Namaskar.
11:07 Namaskar.
11:08 (dramatic music)
11:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]