India The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that restaurants in the country cannot be forced to display the names of their owners.
According to the news agency Reuters, after this court order in two northern states of India The police which critics say could encourage discrimination against Muslims, has been suspended.
The Supreme Court bench said in its judgment on Monday that restaurants can be expected to disclose what is in their food, including whether the food is vegetarian or not, but they should be told by the owners. Disclosure of name and identity shall not be ‘compelled.’
The court suspended the police orders of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states and sought its response on petitions challenging the move.
According to The Independent, the police had earlier directed restaurants in the two states to display the names of their owners so that Hindus During the holy month of ‘ambiguity can be avoided.’ Thousands of Hindus will perform pilgrimage on foot in this month.
Police in Muzaffarnagar district of the most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh claimed that the order was issued verbally during the rainy month of the Hindu calendar and is issued every year.
According to reports, the state authorities had also asked carts selling food items to follow the orders.
Millions of devotees of the Hindu god Shiva flock to northern states to draw water from the Ganges River Uttarakhandspring and Uttar Pradesh Pilgrimage to holy places located in India is known as ‘Kunwar Yatra’. This year the journey starts from July 22.
Earlier, the police had cited the practice of restricting pilgrims’ food, such as not consuming meat, to justify the directive issued last week.
Senior Superintendent of Police Abhishek Singh said that all small and large food shops in the area under their jurisdiction of about 240 km have been directed to register the names of their ‘owners or shopkeepers’.
On the other hand, the order was heavily criticized by Indian opposition parties and members of civil society as it further discriminated against disadvantaged minorities in the state, which was ‘reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa’. induces.’
Earlier, calls for an economic boycott of Muslims by far-right organizations in northern and western parts of India had scared minorities from running their businesses.
Akhilesh Yadav, head of the opposition Samajwadi Party, said in a post on X: ‘Such orders are social crimes, which seek to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of harmony.’
Pawan Khera, a spokesperson for the main opposition Congress, asked in a post on X that ‘this directive is a step towards an economic boycott of Muslims.’
According to Asaduddin Owaisi, a lawmaker from Hyderabad: ‘It is called apartheid in South Africa and ‘Jewish boycott’ in Hitler’s Germany.
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Muzaffarnagar, where now the Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled by the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saw communal riots in 2013, during which around 65 people were killed and thousands displaced.
The BJP and Narendra Modi’s federal government have been accused on several occasions by civil society, opposition groups and some foreign governments of taking decisions aimed at fueling religious discrimination.
However, the Prime Minister says that he does not discriminate between Islam or Muslims and between Hindus and Muslims.
Despite these statements, discrimination continues in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier this month, a BJP MLA in Muzaffarnagar had said that Muslims should not name their shops after Hindu gods during the Yatra.
According to the newspaper ‘Times of India’, he said that ‘when the pilgrims find out (that the shops they eat at are run by Muslims) then it creates controversy.’
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has banned the open sale of meat on the roads as a mark of respect to the people participating in the ‘Kanwar Yatra’.
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2024-07-23 02:22:20
