Nameplate row returns as Kanwar Yatra kicks off, Owaisi alleges shopkeepers being forced to remove pants in UP

As the annual Kanwar Yatra kicks off, the nameplate row has returned with AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi alleging that shopkeepers in Uttar Pradesh are being forced to remove their pants to prove their identities.

Owaisi alleged that vigilante groups in UP’s Muzaffarnagar have been asking hoteliers for their Aadhaar cards and making shopkeepers remove their pants.

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“There are many hotels near the Muzaffarnagar bypass. These hotels have been there for years. Didn’t the Kanwar Yatra start here 10 years ago? The Kanwar Yatra used to start peacefully. There was no unrest there. Why is all this happening now? Now, they are asking for Aadhaar cards from hoteliers. They are making shopkeepers remove their pants,” he said in a video statement.

Slamming the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the AIMIM leader stated that it is beyond understanding whether the government is running things or such groups.

“Who gave vigilante groups the right to go to hotels and demand Aadhaar cards? It’s unclear whether the government and administration are running things or these groups are,” he said.

The row began last year when the Uttar Pradesh government issued a directive asking shopkeepers along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names outside their shops.

BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand also followed suit and issued a similar diktat asking vendors and shopkeepers along the yatra route to display their names. The Supreme Court had stayed the state government’s diktat in an interim order.

The Opposition had alleged that it was being done to divide the country on religious lines. The directive was challenged in the Supreme Court, where petitioners argued that such a move would be “economic death” of small small vendors.

“Violators will be fined if they do not show their names. We are talking about thousands of kilometres. The bulk of these shops are tea stalls, and some belong to fruit shop owners. This is economic death,” senior Advocate Babushek Manu Singhvi had said during the hearing. The top court then stayed the state government’s diktat in an interim order.

As per the Hindu calendar, the month of Sawan will begin on July 11 and end on August 9.