Discrimination ; ‘Mody’ bakery forced to remove the sticker publicising ‘halal’ food !!!

A bakery at Kurumasserry near Aluva has been compelled to remove under constraint a statement about the availability of ‘halal’ food. The bakery, named ‘Mody’, that had been opened recently was forced to change the sticker following a notice administered by the Parakkadavu unit of the Hindu Aikya Vedi on December 28. The notice, signed by unit president Arun Aravind and secretary Dhanesh Prabhakaran, is widely spreading on social media.

The notice regarded that the exhibition of the sticker proclaiming ‘halal’ food amounted to prejudice of food based on religion. This, the notice read, was equivalent to untouchability and therefore illegal. The bakery removed the notification on obtaining the notice.“The sticker declaring ‘halal’ should be cleared within 7 days of the receipt of the notification and such discriminatory portrayals should subsequently be evaded from your forthcoming promotions, failing which the Hindu Aikya Vedi will be compelled to boycott the shop and undertake protests,” the notice read.

It all began when Mr. Aravind and a few others went in at the shop for snacks earlier this week and urged on non-halal food. They were informed that only ‘halal’ food was available.“panchayat does not have sufficient members of the organization to certify advertising of ‘halal’ food. Those who require it will request and there is no need for such a statement,” said Mr. Aravind, who explained the notice stating that there was no menace of violence. As per the sources, the availability of ‘halal’ food was one of their attractions. The bakery did not cater to locals alone but passers-by as well.

The shop mostly sold bakery items and only provided Al-fam and Shawarma, two chicken-based snacks, that comes under the classification of ‘halal.’ The newly vow-in Parakkadavu block panchayat president T. V. Pratheesh from the Left Democratic Front told that the incident had not been conveyed to the statement of the panchayat. He said an unplanned need for the removal of the ‘halal’ notification was improper. ‘‘We will look into the matter and intervene if needed,” he said.