Lucknow: Days after the Muzaffarnagar police asked all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners’ names, the Uttar Pradesh government Friday extended the controversial order across the state.
The order issued by the Muzaffarnagar police Monday has been slammed by opposition parties and some members of the ruling alliance, who say it targets Muslim traders.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
On Monday, the Muzaffarnagar police ordered eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the district to display the names of their owners to avoid any “confusion”.
“About 240 kilometres 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,” district police chief Abhishek Singh had said.
“This has been done to ensure that there should be no confusion among kanwariyas and no law-and-order situation arises. All are following this voluntarily,” he told reporters then.
Justifying the move, V K Mishra, in-charge of the weights and measures department of Meerut, said Friday that as per the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, every restaurant and dhaba ‘sanchalak’ (person running the eatery unit) needed to display the name of the firm, the owner’s name and the licence number.
The Muzaffarnagar police advisory came in for severe criticism from several quarters.
Union minister and BJP ally Chirag Paswan unequivocally opposed it and said he would “absolutely … never support or encourage” any divide in the name of caste or religion.
Another BJP ally, the Janata Dal (United), also criticised the advisory. JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said the Muzaffarnagar police should be withdrawn as it may cause communal tension and there should not be any discrimination based on religion or caste.
The main opposition party Congress alleged that the directive was intended to normalise the economic boycott of Muslims. Its spokesperson Pawan Khera called the order “state-sponsored bigotry”.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi compared the Muzaffarnagar police advisory to the Apartheid and Judenboykott, the boycott of Jewish businesses in Hitler’s Germany.
The BJP, which is in power at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, however, defended the measure, claiming that it allows fasting Hindus who may want to eat at a pure vegetarian restaurant, where the likelihood of them being served ‘satvik’ food is higher.
But senior BJP leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi expressed apprehension that it might spread the “disease of untouchability”.
Both Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati hit out at the Muzaffarnagar police advisory.
While Yadav dubbed the move as a “social crime” and appealed to courts to take suo motu cognisance of the matter, Mayawati asked the state government to withdraw it.
PTI