Owaisi condemns Aadhaar checks, ‘pant utaaro’ incidents at UP eateries during Kanwar Yatra: ‘This shameful behavior must end’

AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi has strongly criticized the Uttar Pradesh administration and police for allegedly allowing vigilante groups to operate unchecked near Muzaffarnagar during the ongoing Kanwar Yatra. Expressing outrage, Owaisi questioned why these groups are being allowed to function like a “parallel government.”

Referring to disturbing recent reports where men were reportedly forced to remove their pants to "prove their religion" along the Delhi-Dehradun highway, Owaisi pointed out that areas like Baghonwali, Sarwat, and Bajheri—near the Muzaffarnagar bypass—have hosted the Kanwar Yatra peacefully for over a decade. He said the situation has now changed drastically.

“There are hotels in those areas that have been running smoothly for years,” he said. “So why now? Why are people being dragged out, asked to show their Aadhaar cards, and even stripped if they don’t have one? Who are these vigilantes? Is the state government in control, or have these groups taken over?”

Owaisi also slammed these self-styled vigilantes for targeting hotel staff and owners without any legal authority. “Who gave you the right to barge into a hotel and interrogate someone? Are you the police? Are you the law? Are you the government?” he asked, citing a Supreme Court order that prohibits such harassment and is still in effect.

Describing one reported incident, he said, “They went into a hotel and asked the owner for his Aadhaar card. When he didn’t produce one, they told him, ‘Pant utaaro’—take off your pants. Kya hai yeh gandagi? What is this filth? This filth must stop.”

He urged the administration to take action, warning that silence from the police would only embolden such groups. “Our demand is simple: uphold the rule of law.”

Owaisi’s comments follow alarming reports from Muzaffarnagar, where members of a vigilante group allegedly linked to controversial seer Swamy Yashveer Maharaj forced roadside eatery workers and hotel staff to prove their religion by lowering their pants. The group, said to belong to the self-styled Bharatiya Sanatan Suraksha Dal, has reportedly been targeting businesses owned by minority communities during the Kanwar Yatra.

The controversy comes in the wake of a Supreme Court interim order from July last year, which stayed a directive by the Uttar Pradesh government requiring shopkeepers along Kanwar Yatra routes to display their names. The court clarified that vendors are only obligated to disclose the type of food served—not the owner’s identity.

During that hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the state’s order lacked legal standing, calling it a “camouflage order.”

Despite the stay, the Yogi Adityanath-led government had expanded the directive across the state, with Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh adopting similar measures. The move faced backlash not just from opposition parties but also from several allies within the NDA, including the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.