Opponents have long been targeting the UP police ever since its orders to list the names of hotel and shop owners along the Kanwar Yatra route in Uttar Pradesh. In this environment, a new controversy has erupted in Muzaffarnagar, in which Lokesh Bharti, owner of Sakshi Hotel on the Delhi-Dehradun highway, has terminated four Muslim employees. Bharti alleges to have done this based on advice from the police.
Lokesh Bharti explained that a police vehicle came to him and told him that he could not employ Muslim boys. First, they suggested putting up a 6 *4 proprietor board outside the dhaba and keeping the identity cards of all the employees. After some time, the police instructed Bharti to terminate the services of the Muslim employees. Bharti complied and terminated the jobs of Shafqat Ali, Munshi, Raju, and Vakar. When asked which police station issued the directive, Lokesh Bharti said he could not specify but confirmed that they were police officers.
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The Vishva Hindu Parishad has also come out in support of the directive to write in front of shops, the name of the shop owners along the Kanwar Yatra route. The VHP, while criticizing the objections by opposition parties over the Uttar Pradesh Police’s instructions in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday, said that this was essential to protect the faith of Hindus.
AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi dubbed the directive as discriminatory and alleged that it manifested the Yogi Adityanath government’s intention to demote Muslims to second-class citizens in Uttar Pradesh and the country. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav dubbed the directive a ‘social offense’ and said courts should take suo moto cognizance of the matter.
