New Delhi: The Congress, which had slammed the BJP-led governments in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh for asking food vendors on the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names, has welcomed the Supreme Court order against the controversial directive on Monday.
The Congress that termed the controversial move by the three state governments as unconstitutional and divisive, expressed hope that PM Modi would now ask his chief ministers to follow their ‘Rajdharma’, something he had ignored decades ago as the chief minister of Gujarat.
“I welcome the Supreme Court’s order against this strange directive which was unconstitutional and divisive. The top court order banning the state governments’ directive has not only corrected a wrong administrative decision, it has also protected democracy and syncretic social fabric in the country. The directive clearly aimed at targeting the Muslims and Dalits which was wrong,” AICC secretary in charge of UP Pradeep Narwal told ETV Bharat.
“I think PM Modi should now ask his chief ministers to follow their ‘Rajdharma’, an advice that he had received from the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2002 as chief minister of Gujarat and had ignored. We had political and ideological differences with former PM Vajpayee but he was a different kind of politician. I have little hope that PM Modi will do anything like that,” he said.
According to the AICC functionary, the BJP had not been able to digest its loss in the Lok Sabha polls in UP and had therefore brought out the controversial nameplate order to further push its divisive politics.
“UP was a political and cultural laboratory for the BJP. They have not been able to digest the loss they suffered at the hands of the Congress-SP combine which won 43 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats bringing the saffron party to 33. They have not learnt any lessons from the loss and tried to push their divisive politics through the nameplate order,” said Narwal.
AICC secretary in charge of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand MLA Qazi Nizamuddin said the top court immediately cancelled the controversial state government order as it had no legal basis.
“The officers were forced by the political leadership to frame the unconstitutional order. The BJP is still thinking in a way that is against the ground reality. The reality has changed after the 2024 Lok Sabha results and even their allies like RLD, JD-U and LJP had spoken against the nameplate order. The saffron party should now take some lessons. The top court must be commended for doing the right thing. It is after all the last resort for the people to uphold constitutional order,” Qazi told ETV Bharat.
Congress Working Committee member and senior MP leader Kamleshwar Patel said the top court order is a slap on BJP's face. “This is a slap on the face of the BJP which only knows how to divide the people for their benefit. The directive was clearly aimed at a particular community and to arouse communal feelings during the religious yatra which has been an annual affair for long. I hope the BJP will now change its ways of working given the voices against the controversial order that came from within the NDA,” Patel told ETV Bharat.
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'Must Not Be Forced': SC Stays Orders Asking Eateries To Display Names On Kanwar Yatra Route
