A hotel owner said Muslim employees were of the best characters and they will not be able to find better employees.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Muslim employees working at eateries along the annual Kanwar Yatra route have been removed from jobs following the diktat issued by the Muzaffarnagar police on displaying names of the owners of businesses.
Speaking to a YouTube news channel Red Mike, hotel owners in Muzaffarnagar said that they were asked by the local administration to remove the Muslim employees till the culmination of the Kanwar Yatra.
Lokesh Bharti, who runs Shakshi Tourist Dhaba, said that he was forced to remove four Muslims employees who were working with him since 2012.
“I had four Muslims employees. Officials from the local administration had come and asked us to remove these employees till 5 August when the Kanwar Yatra ends. I had to obey the orders from the administration,” said Bharti.
Shafaqat, Naushad, Waqar and Munshi are the employees who were sacked.
“We never thought of sacking our Muslim employees. There was some discussion about the religion of the employees last year. The Kanwar Yatris never ask about the religion of the employees,” he said.
The hotel owner said that the Muslim employees were of the best characters and they will not be able to find better employees.
Another employee of Hotel Rakesh also testified the good character of the Muslim employees stating that they were living like family. “We never heard of any complaints about them. We were living like brothers. Their behaviour was very good. We are dismayed at their sacking,” he said.
Suresh, an employee, said the hotel management was thrown into disarray after being forced to remove their manager Shafaqat. “He was the main man at the hotel. He used to handle the entire system. He used to deal with the customers. He knew how to do all these things very well. All of these Muslim employees were very good. They were working for 10-15 years,” said the employee.
The Muslim employees were behaving very well with the Kanwariya devotees. They used to manage everything for them. The way Hindu employees used to treat the devotees, Muslim used to do the same. There was never an issue since those Muslim employees were working at the dhaba.
“We had never an issue with them due to the religion. We were living like brothers,” said another Hindu employee Sonu.
Dhaba owner Bharti said the bigger problem is that these employees were working as daily wagers. Now, they will sit idle for 15-20 days. How will they earn their livelihood? How will they bear the expenses of food and lodging during this period?.
“If they will not work for several days, from where they will bring food? They are daily wagers. We are thinking of helping them in whatever ways we can,” he said.
Earlier, talking about the controversial diktat, Muzaffarnagar SSP Abhishek Singh said all shops dealing with edible items have been directed to display the names of their owners and proprietors on the 240-km Kanwar Yatra route.
“Preparations for the Kanwar Yatra have started. All eateries such as hotels, vendors and dhabas have been directed to display the names of their proprietors and owners. This has been done to avoid any confusion among the Kanwar Yatris creating a law-and-order situation,” said Singh.
