Muzaffarnagar: Lokesh Bharti, whose dhaba is on the Kanwar Yatra route, around 20 kilometres from Muzaffarnagar in UP, fired four Muslim employees last week.
The Kanwar Yatra, an annual pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of Hindu god Shiva, is set to begin Monday. As part of the yatra, the devotees fetch water from the Ganga and carry it to various Shiva temples, walking barefoot.
Earlier this week, the Muzaffarnagar police issued an order directing shops and eateries along the route to display the names of the owners before the yatra begins, causing restlessness among the hundreds of dhaba owners in the area and inviting the ire of the Opposition. While a new advisory asking owners to get their names written “voluntarily” was issued Thursday, the restlessness remains.
Bharti, who owns Sakshi Tourist Dhaba, says the timing of the police directive has created suspicion that a certain community is being targeted. Had this order to display owners’ names come earlier, there would have been no resentment, he adds.
The 51-year-old recalls that around 10 days ago, some policemen had come to the dhaba, asking for all Muslim employees to be removed for the month of Sawan, when the Kanwar Yatra takes place.
“It was very sad for me to have to sack four employees. They had all worked here for years and had also helped devotees during the Kanwar Yatra in the past years,” Bharti tells ThePrint. “Naushad, Munshi, Waqar and Safaqat were very well-behaved. Three of them were from Khatauli (Uttar Pradesh), one from Bihar.”
Bharti has been running his dhaba since 2012. He says most of the dhabas there are run on contract and most of the contractors are Muslims. “Hindus and Muslims have been working here together. There has never been any problem. This police order will create a rift between Hindus and Muslims,” he adds.
For now, Bharti has hired new Hindu workers to meet the shortage of staff, but claims he will rehire the sacked employees once the yatra is over. “The biggest problem is that these people will be sitting at home for 20-25 days. Their livelihoods depended on this job,” he says.
On the instructions of the police administration, Bharti has now written the name of the proprietor outside the dhaba.
When ThePrint approached the local police, they refused to comment on the order.
However, a senior police officer in Muzaffarnagar told ThePrint, on condition of anonymity, that such a decision was taken for the sake of transparency so that Kanwar pilgrims do not face any “inconvenience”. It has been made voluntary now, he added.
Last year, ThePrint had reported that the UP police had shut Muslim restaurants in Sambhal for the Kanwar Yatra without any written order.
According to an estimate given by a district administration official, every year, around 4 crore Kanwariyas carry Kanwar (the slings used by devotees to carry pitchers of water) from Haridwar, and more than 2.5 crore of them pass through Muzaffarnagar. Kanwariyas go to different districts of Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh via Muzaffarnagar district.
“Law and order has to be maintained during the Kanwar Yatra. In such a situation, to avoid any confusion, the hotel operators were asked to put up plaques with their names. Kanwariyas avoid certain food items,” Muzaffarnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Abhishek Singh told media persons.
A police statement reads, “The purpose of this order is not to discriminate on any religious grounds, but to ensure the convenience of devotees passing through Muzaffarnagar, to avoid allegations and law and order situation.”
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Mixed reactions
The order is a common topic of discussion among the owners and proprietors of the countless roadside dhabas and shops between Muzaffarnagar and Haridwar. Some say it’s right, others call it wrong.
Raju, who runs Shiva Punjabi Tourist Dhaba, says the government acts for the welfare of the people. “We have no problem with writing the name. We have to write our own names. If this is what the government wants, we have no problem,” he tells ThePrint.
The dhaba owners have started complying. The names of proprietors have been written on the display boards of many dhabas, for which they have had to spend Rs 500-1,000 each. However, many small shops are yet to do so.
Praveen Kumar tells ThePrint the police visited his dhaba around 10 days ago, and asked him to write the names of all the employees, too. “They noted down the names of all our employees. They even checked my name on Paytm. Within a week of the police asking us to do so, we put up posters with the names of all 10 employees outside,” Kumar says.
Kumar has welcomed the government’s decision. “Everyone here is sitting on the roadside to earn money. No one wants to create a controversy. We did what we were told. We don’t consider it wrong either.”
The Kanwariyas have already left for the yatra. Hundreds of them can be spotted on the way.
Arun, a Kanwariya traveller on his way to Gomukh, having breakfast at a roadside dhaba, says, “The government’s decision is wrong. We have been participating in the yatra for 15 years, but have never seen such a decision. This will divide the two communities. We have no problem if the shop is owned by a Hindu or a Muslim. There should be no discrimination.”
He adds: “We also saw on the way that people have written names on the shops. This is happening for the first time. During the yatra, Muslims also give us respect. We have eaten at their dhabas many times.”
Political outrage
The Opposition has questioned the Muzaffarnagar police order.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took to social media and demanded the court’s intervention in the matter. He said such orders should be completely rejected.
मुज़फ़्फ़रनगर पुलिस ने जनता के भाईचारे और विपक्ष के दबाव में आकर आख़िरकार होटल, फल, ठेलोंवालों को अपना नाम लिखकर प्रदर्शित करने के प्रशासनिक आदेश को स्वैच्छिक बनाकर जो अपनी पीठ थपथपायी है, उतने से ही अमन-औ-चैन पसंद करनेवाली जनता माननेवाली नहीं है। ऐसे आदेश पूरी तरह से ख़ारिज होने…
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 18, 2024
BJP’s Muzaffarnagar district president Sudhir Saini says the Kanwar Yatra has been organised in a cordial manner every year since 2017, when the Yogi Adityanath-led government came to power.
“Those who want to get power by appeasement are opposing this decision. Not just Muslims, everyone has been asked to write their names. Kanwar Yatra is a religious journey. No one has been asked to shut shop. It has only been said that everyone should make their identity public,” Saini tells ThePrint.
Even senior BJP leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi remarked in a post on X, “The orders of some over-enthusiastic officials are hasty and wrong. This can promote the disease of untouchability. Faith must be respected, but untouchability should not be protected.”
कुछ अति-उत्साही अधिकारियों के आदेश हड़बड़ी में गडबड़ी वाली ..अस्पृश्यता की बीमारी को बढ़ावा दे सकते हैं…आस्था का सम्मान होना ही चाहिए,पर अस्पृश्यता का संरक्षण नहीं होना चाहिए…."जनम जात मत पूछिए, का जात अरु पात।
रैदास पूत सब प्रभु के,कोए नहिं जात कुजात।।🙏🙏🙏
— Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (@naqvimukhtar) July 18, 2024
K.C. Tyagi, spokesperson of Janata Dal (United), a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, objected to the order and asked the government to review it.
Samajwadi Party MP from Muzaffarnagar Harendra Malik says, “The administration wants to divide Hindus and Muslims. Such a decision has never been taken in the past. This is happening for the first time.”
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi posted on X, “Now every food shop or cart owner will have to put his name on the board, so that no Kanwariya buys anything from a Muslim shop by mistake. It was called Apartheid in South Africa and in Hitler’s Germany it was called Judenboycott.”
Lyricist Javed Akhtar also compared the order to Nazi German policies. “In Nazi Germany, they used to make only a mark on particular shops and houses,” he wrote on X.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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Why would this order lead to Hindu-Muslim divide? This is utter nonsense.