This has drawn severe criticism from AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, who dubbed the Uttar Pradesh Police's directive to make it mandatory for eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route in Muzaffarnagar to prominently display their owners' names. He drew a comparison between this move and several such past examples of discrimination, equating it with the boycott by Nazi Germany against Jewish businesses during Hitler's regime.
Owaisi called it a social and economic boycott of Muslims. He expressed concern over the discriminatory nature of the verbal order and challenged the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government to issue a formal written order on the subject.
Owaisi termed the BJP government's action as violative of constitutional principles, and such types of directives tend to promote untouchability, destroy life as envisaged under Article 17 and Article 21, and affect the right to livelihood reflected in Article 19. He also condemned the purported fallout of the order, saying that Muslim employees were fired from local establishments after the directive was issued.
Questioning the selective enforcement of displaying owners' names, Owaisi pointed out that multinational chains—McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Cafe Coffee Day—are not made to follow the same rules. He said it is nothing but discrimination against Muslims, an infringement of what has been laid down in the Constitution.
Responding to the controversy, Muzaffarnagar Police issued a clarification that their motive was not to foster religious discrimination but to maintain law and order during the Kanwar Yatra. They revised their advisory to make it "voluntary" for eateries to display owner names along the pilgrimage route.
