Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday slammed those officials who allegedly promote untouchability. His comment comes amid controversy over the Muzaffarnagar police's order asking eateries along the kanwar yatra route to display their owners' names.
Naqvi, on X, wrote, "The hasty orders of some over-zealous officials may give rise to the disease of untouchability... Faith must be respected, but untouchability must not be patronised..."Janam jaat mat poochhiye, ka jaat aru paat. Raidas poot sab prabhu ke, koe nahin jaat kujaat.. (Don't ask about birth or caste, what is the caste and lineage? Raidas, all are sons of the Lord, none are of low caste).
Akhilesh, Mayawati and Owaisi slam police order
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the Muzaffarnagar police order asking eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners' names, saying it is a "social crime", and appealed to courts to take suo motu cognisance of the matter.
Police in Muzaffarnagar have ordered all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names of owners to avoid any "confusion", a move seen by opposition parties as targeting Muslim traders.
Reacting to a news article on the order, Yadav wrote on 'X', "...And what if the name of the owner is Guddu, Munna, Chhotu or Fatte? What can you find out from these names?"
"Court should take suo motu cognisance of the matter, investigate the intentions of the government and take appropriate punitive action," he said in the post in Hindi.
"Such an order is a social crime aimed at spoiling harmony...," Yadav added.
Hitting out at the order, Mayawati posted in Hindi on 'X', "The new government order for all the hotels, dhabas, carts, shopkeepers etc. on the Kanwar Yatra route in western Uttar Pradesh and Muzaffarnagar district to prominently display the full name of the owners is a wrong tradition which can spoil harmony. The government should immediately withdraw it in the public interest."
Owaisi slammed Uttar Pradesh police for issuing the diktat for vendors. He wrote a strong-worded post on X, "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 Kanwaryia buys anything from a Muslim shop by mistake. This was called 'Apartheid' in South Africa and in Hitler's Germany it was called 'Judenboycott'.
Earlier, Muzaffarnagar police chief Abhishek Singh said, "About 240 km of the Kanwar Yatra route falls in the district. All the eateries, including hotels, dhabas and carts, along the route have been asked to display the names of their proprietors or those working on these shops."
"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 had told reporters.
(With PTI inputs)
