Lucky Ali comments on halal row in a Facebook note: 'With love, understanding'

Singer Lucky Ali has commented amid the boycott calls for products linked to halal meat as the latest political controversy brews in Karnataka, which is already dealing with the issue of hijbas (headscarves) in classrooms. Lucky Ali, who had last year clarified that he wanted to stay away from politics, has made an attempt to give a calmer perspective amid heated arguments.

In a note on Facebook on Sunday, the 63-year-old actor-singer wrote: "Dearly Beloved Indian brothers and sisters hope you're all well..I wanted to explain something to you...'halal' is definitely not for anybody outside of Islam. It's just that any Muslim will not buy any product just like their Jewish relatives who understand Halal as being similar to Kosher and will not buy any product until and unless it's certified that the ingredients within a product are according to his or her consumable limitations.. (sic)"

He further shed a light on why products are certified amid calls for boycott. "..now companies want to sell to everyone including the muslim and jewish populations, so to sell their product they have to label it as Halal certified or Kosher certified."

"... but if the people are so bothered by the word 'halal' they should just remove it from their counters but one can't foresee whether the sales would be the same as they were used to."

He signed off the post saying: "with love...and understanding..."

His note comes days after the BJP's CT Ravi tried to gather support against what he called 'economic jihad'. "No more HALAL PRODUCTS for Hindus. Let us fight unitedly against Economic JIHAD ! ! ! (sic)" he had written on Twitter.

On Saturday, the Congress MLA from Chittapur Assembly Constituency in Kalaburagi District, Priyank Kharge, tweeted, "Congratulations @CMofKarnataka we now have our neighbor telling startups to move to Hyderabad for not only a better infrastructure but also a better social infrastructure. A few more economic jihads from your party will ensure that we neither get investments nor jobs." He was replying to a tweet from Telangana minister KT Rama Rao on a business invite.

Amid boycott calls, Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra last week said the government has a limited role to play on the issue pertaining to 'halal', which is left to the wisdom of people. Jnanendra said the 'Boycott halal food' campaign is not a law and order situation but something related to faith and sentiments, "which everyone knows." 

'Halal' meat is just different from the other kind in terms of how the animal is slaughtered.  The animal is stunned before being killed. 

(With inputs from PTI)