Authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar directing eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display the names of their owners violates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas” ideology, Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi said on Friday, ANI reported.

The Janata Dal (United) is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

Tyagi, who is the Janata Dal (United)’s national spokesperson, said that the pilgrimage in Bihar was bigger than the one that takes place in Uttar Pradesh. “No such order is in effect there,” he said.

During the pilgrimage, devotees, called Kanwariyas, walk hundreds of kilometres to collect water from the Ganga near Haridwar and carry it back to their home states to offer at temples.

The devotees mainly come from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. This year’s Kanwar Yatra will start on July 22 and conclude on August 2.

Authorities in Muzaffarnagar had earlier directed dhabas, food stalls and hotels along the pilgrimage route to display the names of their owners and operators.

Abhishek Singh, Muzaffarnagar’s senior superintendent of police, on Wednesday said that the decision was taken to “avoid confusion” among devotees who would travel on the route.

“These prohibitions that have been imposed are in violation of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas [development for all, with everyone’s trust]’ that the PM speaks of,” Tyagi told ANI on Friday. “The order is not in effect in Bihar, in Rajasthan, in Jharkhand. It would be good if it [directive] is reviewed.”

Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan also told PTI on Friday that he did not support the directive. His party is also an ally of the BJP. “Whenever there is such divide in the name of caste or religion, I absolutely do not either support it or encourage it,” Paswan said.

On Wednesday, as the senior superintendent of police’s statement started garnering criticism on social media, including from Opposition leaders, the Muzaffarnagar Police issued a clarification.

The police claimed that the intention behind the directive was not to create a religious divide but to ensure the well-being of devotees who abstained from certain food items during the pilgrimage.

In the past, law and order situations have arisen due to shopkeepers, who sell “all types of food”, allegedly naming their establishments in a way that “created confusion among Kanwariyas”, the police claimed.

“To prevent a recurrence and in view of the faith of devotees, hotels, dhabas and shopkeepers selling food items on Kanwar Yatra route have been requested to voluntarily display the names of their owners and employees,” said the police, adding that this system existed in the past as well.

In 2023, Yashveer Maharaj, a priest from an ashram in Muzaffarnagar, had demanded that Muslim owners of establishments display their names on their businesses.

A post on his Facebook account on Wednesday said that the Muzaffarnagar authorities had on June 24 promised the priest that “all Muslims would write their Muslim names in bold letters on their hotels, dhabas, tea and sweet shops, and fruit and vegetable carts”.

On Wednesday, the Congress criticised the move and urged “all right-thinking people and the media” to rise against “this state-sponsored bigotry”.

“We cannot allow the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] to push the country back into dark ages,” said Congress leader Pawan Khera in a social media post.

The BJP has been in power in Uttar Pradesh since March 2017.

Also read: Kanwar yatra food directive is unconstitutional – and the police know this