Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district sent notices to restaurants, fruit shops, roadside dhabas and hotel owners to display their names in front of the shops in order to identify which religious community they belong to.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP), while speaking to reporters, said that the primary objective of this step is to conduct the Kanwar Yatra in a peaceful manner.
“The Kanwar yatra route from Muzaffarnagar is around 240 km. We have sent notices to all hotel managements, dhabas owners, fruit vendors to display their names so that there is no confusion and no law and order situation arises,” the police officer said.
Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage of devotees of Shiva, known as Kanwarias. They take the procession to pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Ajgaibinath, Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, Bihar to fetch holy waters of Ganges River.
Last year, during the Kanwar yatra, a swami by the name of Yashveer Maharaj accused the Muslim community of naming their shops and restaurants after Hindu gods and goddesses. This year too, they have demanded that every eatery and hotel establishment display their names so that the pilgrims can have food and rest in the ‘right’ place.
Owaisi reacts
Reacting to the order, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi compared the move with Hitler’s Germany. In an X post, he said, “As per the order of Uttar Pradesh Police, now every food shop or cart owner will have to put his name on the board so that no Kanwadia buys anything from a Muslim shop by mistake. This was called Apartheid in South Africa and in Hitler’s Germany it was called ‘Judenboycott’.
