Baghpat diktat: Men give up ‘smoking’ in protest

A group of men representing several villages in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh have decided to give up smoking the traditional hookah, in a bid to condemn the diktat issued by a village council in the neighbouring district of Baghpat that curtailed freedom of women. Terming the society as a male-dominated entity, a local resident of Muzaffarnagar, Alka said that it was men who should be banned from consuming intoxicants at the first place to reform the social fabric.