Misinformation, Meat Ban and Politics of Name: Kanwar Yatra 2025
New Delhi: On July 13, Delhi’s culture and tourism minister Kapil Mishra tweeted that “some miscreants deliberately threw glass on the Kanwar Yatra route” in Northeast Delhi’s Shahdara. He added, “PWD and MCD workers are clearing the road. The local MLA Sanjeev Goel is present at the spot. CM Rekha Gupta has taken cognisance. PWD will lodge an FIR.”
Shahdara MLA Sanjay Goyal told the media that the glass shards were not from a shattered windshield but “a deliberate attempt to create mischief by anti-social elements.” Delhi BJP chief Vijender Sachdeva claimed that “specific people” involved in politics of a “specific religion” don’t want peace. “These sorts of incidents,” he said, “happen only in this area.”
Several TV news channels and far-right websites ran provocative headlines based on Mishra’s version of the story. News18’s thumbnail claimed it was a conspiracy against the Yatra. India News asked if some Maulana did it. OpIndia blamed “the extremists.” Right-wing influencers suggested a Muslim angle.
A screenshot from India News telecast reads, "Did Maulana want to stop Shiva bhakts with glass shards on the road?". Photo: Screengrab/YouTube
As it turned out, there was no sabotage or conspiracy. An e-rickshaw carrying glass panels to a nearby locality met with an accident at the spot. The panels broke into small shards on the road. On July 12, DCP Shahdara took cognisance of the incident, but by then, the video had already gone viral.
Subsequently, Kusum Pal, the e-rickshaw driver, was arrested.
When The Wire visited the Kanwar Yatra camps in Shahdara, there was a sense of unease. The story of the broken glass and conspiracy theories around it had spread far and wide in the area.
Nitin Sharma, one of the camp organisers, told The Wire that this was the second such incident in the past few days. Along with a group of fellow organisers, he raised an alarm when injured Kanwariyas came to his camp and informed him about the glass shards. “When I went there to check, there were shards all over the road, at least for a kilometre,” he said.
A Kanwar Yatra camp in New Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
Barricade out a Kanwar Yatra camp in New Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
He suspects that it is not an accident but a conspiracy by people from “the other religion” who do not want “the Yatra to be successful.”
“I complained to the MLA, and he assured us it won’t happen,” he added.
When The Wire informed him that the police had arrested a person named Kusum Pal, he said he was not aware of it.
A few hundred metres away, at a different camp, people were aware of the reality behind the incident, but they declined to talk about the politics surrounding it. “I read about it in the newspaper,” said Mukul Sharma, adding that the rumours were false.
These rumours are part of a series of recent events that sync this year’s Kanwar Yatra in Delhi with the Hindutva politics around the Yatra in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Delhi government's banner welcoming Kanwariyas for the Yatra. Photo: Alishan Jafri
The Aam Aadmi Party has accused the BJP of politicising the Yatra and favouring BJP-linked camps, a charge the BJP has rejected. Nitin Sharma said he’s not linked to any party, but “this government has made better arrangements than the AAP government”.
Madan Lal Mittal and Mukul Sharma, organisers at two different camps, said that earlier, the government itself would set up the camps. This year, however, they have started a reimbursement system. AAP says it’s been done to favour the BJP.
Meat ban
Last week, Kapil Mishra said that meat shops on the route in Delhi would remain shut. He said, “Most of the shops were running illegally,” and there would be no exemption. Later, the MCD clarified that no such directive had been made, and people close their shops voluntarily.
Last week, however, a video surfaced online in which Tarwinder Singh Marwah, the BJP MLA from Jangpura, was demanding meat shops and eateries to shut their shutters.
Ravinder Negi, BJP MLA from Patparganj, who first hit headlines for targeting Muslim businesses last year, also told IANS that he’d get meat shops on the Yatra route shut down.
Arif, who runs a tyre repair shop in Delhi and is also a food vlogger. Photo: Alishan Jafri
On the ground, however, many eateries serving meat were still open in Shahdara, but almost every vendor The Wire met with said their shops would remain closed next week. Some said they’d been told to remove meat items from display or temporarily shut down by authorities, although “it was just a request,” one street vendor added.
Mohammad Luqman runs an eatery nearby that serves chicken biryani. He said, “I have run this shop for a decade. We shut down every Sawan for 8 to 10 days during the Yatra.”
Mohammad Luqman, whose eatery in Shahdara serves chicken biryani, shuts shop for 8-10 days every year during Kanwar Yatra. Photo: Alishan Jafri
“We want to cooperate with the government, and they only want us to shut down, but what about the rent?” asked Arif, who runs a tyre repair shop and doubles as a food vlogger. “The rent is around 700 per day. Who will pay for it?”
Arif added that earlier, nobody would tell them to shut down their shops.
Close to the Shahdara metro station, the police allegedly asked Raj Kumar, an egg vendor, not to sell egg fry and omelettes openly on the highway for a week or at least hide his display. Incidentally, the Domino’s and Burger King outlets next to the metro have not received any such verbal request from either the authorities or the activists. Their display and menu remain unchanged.
“There are people who eat meat during Sawan, and there are people who don’t eat meat. Expecting people to shut shops is wrong,” Arif said, adding that this is new in Delhi.
A Burger King and Domino's in Shahdara, Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
A larger campaign
In parts of UP and Uttarakhand, meat bans during the Yatra and other Hindu festivals are official and much more stringent. In cities like Varanasi and Haridwar, violations can lead to criminal prosecution. In 2021, a bench of Uttarakhand HC noted that these bans are not about minority vs. majority but a violation of fundamental rights, adding that the majority of Indians are meat-eaters. But these words have hardly had much effect on the authorities who want to turn Haridwar into a butcher-free city.
In these states, right-wing activists have not even spared vegetarian food eateries run by Muslims. Since 2023, one Swami Yashveer has been running a campaign to get all shops marked as Hindu and non-Hindu on the route of the Yatra in West UP.
Kanwariyas march across a welcome banner featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
In 2024, following protests by Yashveer’s supporters, the UP government had asked all shops on the route to be marked and all vendors to display their names prominently for buyers to identify the religion of the sellers. Even fruit carts and puncture repair shops were marked.
Hindu eatery owners were asked to send their Muslim workers on leave. Muslim owners were asked to shut down or prominently display their names. Why? To ensure the purity of food.
Legal experts and activists called it a new form of untouchability and apartheid.
However, this directive was stayed by the Supreme Court. The top court asked vendors to display what kind of food – vegetarian or non-vegetarian – they serve instead of just the name.
This time around, there’s a QR code system that pretty much serves the same agenda of checking the identity of the seller to ascertain the purity of food. Additionally, Yashveer’s teams are distributing portraits of Varaha, the boar avatar of Vishnu, to Hindu shops. He argues that this is a good way to identify Muslims and stop what he calls “mutr jihad” (urine jihad) and “thook jihad” (spit jihad).
In Uttarakhand’s Jwalapur, Hindutva leaders like Swami Prabodhanand, who made calls for a Muslim genocide at the Haridwar Dharma Sansad, are seeking a boycott of Muslim artisans who make the Kanwar.
Kanwariyas hit the streets for Kanwar Yatra in New Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
This year onwards, the “purity” campaign has reached Delhi. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has launched a drive to mark Hindu shops on the route with “Sanatani stickers” that read “Garv se kaho ham Hindu hain (Say with pride we’re Hindu)” and “Sanatani Vyavasahik Pratishthan.”
In some places, the QR codes have also been installed. The drive is said to cover 5,000 eateries and grocery stores.
Jagran reported VHP Delhi secretary Surender Gupta explaining the rationale behind the move. “The devotees do not even put their water containers on the ground during their yatra. If they buy anything to eat from any of these shops, they should be sure that it is as per the traditional values of Sanatan Dharma,” Gupta said.
At the camps, the reactions among the Kanwariyas from Delhi were mixed.
A security official at a camp for Kanwar Yatra, New Delhi. Photo: Alishan Jafri
Nitin Sharma said a UP-like system should come to Delhi to ensure hygiene. Another camp manager said, “People should be proud to display their names.” However, two camp organisers who wished not to be mentioned said it’s wrong.
Two young Kanwariyas from Bhajanpura, both 18, who travelled to Haridwar for the first time, also said it’s wrong. “Everyone should be able to do business,” said Jatin Suryavanshi as Yash Kashyap agreed and added, “There should be no Hindu vs. Muslim in this.”
This article went live on July sixteenth, two thousand twenty five, at forty-one minutes past six in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
