- Two Indian states require eateries to display employee names
- Muslims fear discrimination and boycotts due to the policy
- Critics claim the law targets Muslims under the guise of safety
Muslims in India claim they have been dismissed and risk the closure of their companies after two states implemented a “discriminatory” ordinance requiring eateries to publish the identities of all their employees publicly.
The policy was initially adopted by Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a fundamentalist Hindu monk. Last month, the state of Himachal Pradesh, which the opposition Congress party runs, stated that all worker and employee names would be made public.
Both state governments have stated that the goal is to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements and vending restrictions in the north Indian states. However, locals and campaigners claim that the new laws are a thinly veiled attack on Muslim workers and enterprises.
In India, names are extensively used to denote religion and caste, and Muslim company owners in Uttar Pradesh are concerned that this may result in targeted attacks or economic boycotts, notably by fundamentalist Hindu groups operating in the state.
This order is dangerous; it forces us to wear our religion on our sleeve,” said Tabish Aalam, 28, who hails from a long line of Lucknow-based specialty cooks. “I am sure the government knows this, and that is why it is being exploited.”
Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also governs at the national level under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose decade in office has been marked by increased anti-Muslim prejudice and violence.
Adityanath is regarded as one of the BJP’s most extreme leaders. Since becoming chief minister in 2017, he has implemented a slew of policies that have been accused of facilitating the targeting of Muslims or promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.
Business owners in Uttar Pradesh claimed they removed Muslim employees as a result of the new rules, afraid they would become targets. Other Muslim-owned businesses claimed they had already been harassed as a result of the policy, with some considering closing.
Rafiq, 45, the Muslim proprietor of a highway restaurant in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, said he sacked his four Muslim employees in July when police requested that he post their names on a sign outside.
“I had to fire my Muslim staff because I was concerned for their safety following the order,” he told me. Displaying our names makes us vulnerable and simple to target. If communal tensions persist, we will be easily identifiable as Muslims and targeted.
Rafiq did not question why the Adityanath government was imposing these new rules. “Displaying names will identify people’s religions, which I suspect is intended to discourage people from eating at Muslim-owned or Muslim-staffed restaurants,” he told me. So far, Rafiq claimed he has resisted police pressure to comply, but if pushed to, he will most likely close his firm.
Calls for economic boycotts of Muslims have been widespread throughout the state, and attacks on Muslim sellers have increased during the last five years. Last month, the state leader of the Bajrang Dal, a right-wing Hindu vigilante group, was caught on film at a meeting encouraging attendees to promise, “I will not buy goods from any Muslim shopkeeper.”
Idrees Ahmed, 31, a Muslim who had worked as a cook for seven years, was among those sacked recently. He claimed that he was one of numerous Muslim employees dismissed as a result of the new policy.
“The owner of the restaurant is a Hindu, and most of the other staff members were also Hindu,” Ahmed told me. When the order was issued, the owner called me and other Muslim staff members and apologised before asking us to go home.
Ahmed said the event left him “emotionally shattered,” he was struggling to maintain his family of five because no other eateries would hire him. “I lost a job simply because of my religion,” he told me. “I know so many Muslims who were working in different restaurants but were fired after the order.”
In Muzaffarnagar, several claimed that only Muslim-owned businesses were being pushed to comply. Mohammad Azeem, 42, who manages a modest roadside shop, claims he was the only business owner hounded by police for displaying his name on a sign. “The administration is deliberately trying to create a divide,” he claimed. “Why did they ask me selectively?”
Praveen Garg, a BJP spokesperson in Uttar Pradesh, stated that the regulation was in place to protect restaurant hygiene and that “nobody is being denied permission to work.”
“The government was obligated to take this action after becoming aware of situations in which food was purposefully contaminated,” Mr. Garg added. “There have been instances where persons from a specific community have been caught polluting meals with dirty items that a Hindu cannot consume.”
Several incidences in which sellers allegedly mingled spit and urine with food and drink items recently went viral, resulting in arrests around the state. However, there was no evidence that the instances were intentionally targeted at Hindus, despite claims by right-wing Hindu groups that there was a Muslim conspiracy to perform “spit jihad.”
In July, India’s Supreme Court overturned a separate decision by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments, both BJP-ruled, that required restaurants along the path of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to publish the names of their owners and operators. Opposition MPs petitioned against the decree, claiming it was “discriminatory on religious grounds.
Despite the uproar and claims of inciting religious hatred, the state administration of Himachal Pradesh said in September that it would shortly follow Uttar Pradesh’s pattern.
Take a step towards financial freedom – claim your free Webull shares now!
It cited food hygiene and fears of an “influx of migrants” for implementing the measure. Vikramaditya Singh, a Himachal Pradesh Congress leader and state minister, said the topic was still being discussed.
“There will be no compromise on the internal security of the state. The legislation applies to everyone. “Why should one community feel threatened or concerned?” Said Singh. However, he said that if there are significant reservations about the display of names, “other options will be considered.”
Business owners accused the local Congress party of violating its secular vows and exploiting divisive policies to attract the state’s Hindu majority vote.
Sharik Ali, 27, who owns a small Shimla, Himachal Pradesh restaurant, stated: “I will not feel safe after displaying my name on my stall.” We’ve seen how Muslims have been attacked across India in the previous decade under Modi’s leadership, but I wasn’t anticipating this from the Congress government. “They know what will get them votes.”
UN reports Israeli tanks forced access into a base in south Lebanon
