NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has moved the Supreme Court against the directives by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must display the names of their owners.In her plea before the top court, Moitra has sought a stay on the orders passed by the two state governments saying such directives aggravate discord between communities.The plea is yet to be listed for hearing.The TMC leader said by forcing the disclosure of the names of proprietors and even those of their staff, on the stated ground of respecting pilgrims’ dietary choices, “makes it clear that dietary choices is a pretext, or a proxy, for the compelled disclosure of personal — and, in this case, religious — identity”, the plea said.The plea alleged that this has been done to create a socially-enforced economic boycott on Muslim shop owners and workers, and the loss of their livelihoods.”Since June 2023, the Respondent No.1 (State of UP) continued to empower and embolden the anti-social elements by actively targeting Muslim owned businesses based on fabricated and malicious information circulated by the anti-social elements.”The Respondent No.1, through acts of commission and omission, created conditions for the complete economic boycott of Muslim minorities on the pretext of their ‘impure’ dietary choices,” the petition said.
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