An order by the Muzaffarnagar district police in Uttar Pradesh asking eateries on the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names of owners to avoid any “confusion” has been criticised by opposition parties as “communally motivated and directed against Muslim traders”.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called the order “state-sponsored bigotry”. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi compared it with apartheid and “Judenboykott”, the boycott of Jewish businesses in Hitler’s Germany.
“Preparations of Sawan month have started in the district. About 240 km of Kanwar Yatra route falls in the district. All the eateries, including hotels, dhabas and carts, on the route have been asked to display the names of their proprietors or those working on these shops,” Muzaffarnagar police chief Abhishek Singh had said.
The motive, the police officer claimed, was to ensure there should be no confusion among kanwariyas and no law and order situation arose. “All are following this voluntarily,” he said.
The order followed a statement issued by Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) secretary general Bajrang Bagra on July 9 claiming that Muslims were selling puja items at various Hindu pilgrimage sites by “concealing their identity”. The VHP had urged all state governments to take effective steps to prevent Muslims from running such shops “so that the faith of Hindus was not hurt”. In a post on X, Khera said, “Not just political parties, all right-thinking people and the media must rise against this state-sponsored bigotry. We cannot allow the Bharatiya Janata Party to push the country back into dark ages.” Source: TNS