AGRA: A 60-year-old dhaba proprietor, Mohd Saleem, modified the identify of his 20-year-old vegetarian eatery after “repeated threats from a piece of the bulk group, together with a seer”. Saleem, who runs ‘Sangam Shudh Shakahari Bhojnalaya’ on Delhi-Dehradun Highway in Rampuri below Civil Strains limits of Muzaffarnagar, mentioned he was pressured to take the choice after Swami Yashveer Maharaj, a seer of a neighborhood ashram, allegedly issued a “public warning to Muslim house owners working enterprise with names of Hindu deities or pilgrimage websites”.
It was renamed ‘Saleem Dhaba’ on Friday and the proprietor has written his identify as ‘Proprietor Saleem Thakur’. When requested about it, he mentioned, “We’re Muslim Rajputs subsequently I’ve used Thakur with the identify.”
Saleem instructed TOI on Sunday: “This dhaba was began by my father years in the past, however I used to be left with no selection after the warning from Swami and others. I simply need to stay in peace and so determined to take this step voluntarily. I do not need this matter to escalate and create communal disharmony and stress.Individuals of each communities have been residing collectively right here for many years.”
Swami Yasveer allegedly launched a video warning house owners, significantly Muslims, to rename their retailers. Within the purported clip, he could possibly be heard “threatening to take issues in his personal arms if the observe continued and known as upon his followers to take to the streets to guard Sanatan Dharma”. The Swami could possibly be additionally heard purportedly giving an “ultimatum”, saying: “They’ve time until 10am on Sept 7 to take away the names”. The ‘video’ was widely-shared on-line later and created apprehension amongst some minority merchants and eatery house owners.
DSP (Phugana), Sant Kumar, who subsequently met the seer, mentioned, “The matter is within the SC and its pointers might be adopted in any respect price.”SDM Nikita Sharma added, “We have instructed Swami to not take steps on their very own and escalate the matter.”
Notably, throughout kanwar yatra, native administration had issued an advisory directing shopkeepers to quickly put the proprietor’s identify on their enterprise items. Nonetheless, the SC ruling introduced aid to those merchants and store house owners, together with Saleem, who reverted their institutions to their unique names.
