Kanwar Yatra 2024: UP Police's Order To Not Let Kanwariyas Buy Food Items From Muslim Shops Is "Apartheid", Says Owaisi

Hotels, restaurants, and hawkers doing business on the Kanwar Yatra route between Delhi and Haridwar have started to put up signboards to identify themselves after receiving instructions from the authorities.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, particularly, hawkers and shop owners were seen putting up signboards identifying their names, as seen in one of the videos posted on X.

Watch the video here:

This comes soon after Swami Yashveer Maharaj's allegations that a large number of people belonging to one particular community are hiding their identity and running hotels and dhabas with names belonging to the Hindu community. He said that they have dotted the routes from where the Kanwar Yatra passes.

As per reports, Swami has demanded from the police administration that whatever food shops are set up on the roadside during the yatra should have a signboard of the shop owner. “He alleged that some people from a particular community operate shops during the Kanwar fair by putting up boards with the names of Hindu deities, due to which there is a possibility of hurting the sentiments of Shiva devotee Kanwariyas. The identity of people from a particular community operating shops by putting up boards with the names of Hindu deities should be made public. The police should run a campaign for this.”

Swami Yashveer Maharaj had warned that if action was not taken in this regard within a week then protests and agitations would be organized. 

As per reports, amid the tension, Muzaffarnagar SSP gave instructions to business owners to write their original names on the signboards so that “there is no confusion.” “Kanwariyas can buy goods from anywhere,” the SSP added.

Reports suggest that in the city too, posters with names have been pasted on the carts of people selling fruits near Meenakshi Chowk. At this time, with Muharram and Kanwar Yatra coinciding, police have taken extra precautions by installing barbed wires at Shiv Chowk.

The Kanwar Yatra will start on July 22 and conclude on August 2.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's equates it to "apartheid"

A staunch critic of the Yogi government, Owasi equated the order to "apartheid" which meant racial segregation. In a post on X, he tweeted: "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 Kanwariya buys anything from a Muslim shop by mistake. This was called "apartheid" in South Africa and in Hitler's Germany it was called "Judenboykott".