New Delhi: The Congress on Friday termed as “mischief” and “bigotry” the order in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand asking all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners’ names, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra saying that the move was “an attack on the Constitution”.
Priyanka Gandhi demanded that the order be withdrawn and strict action be taken against the officials, who issued the order in the first place.
Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said that such orders were “absolute mischief” and “nothing short of bigotry”.
Days after the Muzaffarnagar Police asked all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners’ names, the Uttar Pradesh government is extending the controversial order across the state and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said similar instructions are already in place there.
The order issued by the Muzaffarnagar Police earlier this week has been slammed by the opposition parties and some members of the ruling alliance, who say it targets the Muslim traders.
In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, “Our Constitution guarantees every citizen that he will not be discriminated against on the basis of caste, religion, language or any other basis.
“The divisive order to put up name boards of the owners of carts, kiosks and shops in Uttar Pradesh is an attack on our Constitution, our democracy and our shared heritage.”
The Congress general secretary added, “Creating division in the society on the basis of caste and religion is a crime against the Constitution. This order should be withdrawn immediately and strict action should be taken against the officials who issued it.”
Khera said the UPA government had proposed some regulations in the context of food safety and now to try and invoke those norms to justify what the UP and Uttarakhand governments were doing on the Kanwar route was “absolute mischief” and “nothing short of bigotry”.
As per the norms, everybody who engages in food businesses has to have a licence and present it on being asked by a government agency, he said.
“As I said, it is for maintaining the standards of safety of food that we buy and consume. But only on the Kanwar Yatra route if you are asking people to display their names, including fruit sellers, that definitely has nothing to do with food security, that is to do with bigotry and the agenda of dividing the society,” Khera said.
“Let it not get confused with the food safety norms brought by the UPA,” he added.
An Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson said Friday that a formal order for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in the state was likely to be issued soon.
In Dehradun, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the decision was taken on July 12 at a meeting to review the preparations for the Kanwar Yatra.
As in Muzaffarnagar, hotels, dhabas and roadside eateries along the yatra route in Uttarakhand have been asked to display their owners’ names, addresses and mobile phone numbers.
The Uttarakhand decision will mostly cover Haridwar but some ‘kanwariyas’ also visit Rishikesh, Neelkanth and Gangotri as part of the yatra, which begins on July 22.
Senior Congress leader in the state Harish Rawat said the decision taken by the Uttar Pradesh and the Uttarakhand governments was unfortunate and painful.
“It will foment animosity between communities and bring disrepute to the country,” he said.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Muzaffarnagar Police said earlier this week that its advisory to the eateries to display their owners’ names was aimed at avoiding any “confusion”.
“This has been done to ensure that there is no confusion among kanwariyas and no law-and-order situation arises. All are following this voluntarily,” district police chief Abhishek Singh told reporters then.
