Kanwar Yatra: Akhilesh, Mayawati slam order asking Muzaffarnagar eateries to display owners' names

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said Thursday the Muzaffarnagar police order asking eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners' names is a "social crime", and appealed to courts to take suo motu cognisance of the matter.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati also hit out at the order and asked for it to be withdrawn.

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, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, 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.

Muzaffarnagar police chief Abhishek Singh said Monday, "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.

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."

The decision has drawn flak from several quarters, including politicians and members of the civil society.