Uttar Pradesh govt goes out of its way to make Kanwariyas feel 'welcome,' but incidents of hooliganism instil fear in people

From incurring additional costs to getting high ranking officials to shower petals , reports suggest that the Uttar Pradesh government has gone to great lengths to ensure that the Kanwariyas ‘feel welcome’ during the annual pilgrimage in the state. This comes even as the movement of Kanwariyas caused public inconvenience at many places.

As videos showing the so-called Shiva devotees going berserk in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr went viral, reports said that some Muslim families in a Bareilly village left their homes recently fearing violence when Kanwariyas would pass through areas in which their homes were located. A state official confirmed this to PTI, requesting anonymity, amid reports of stray incidents of violence involving the pilgrims.

The official revealed that since there was trouble last year at Khelam village in Bareilly district, which falls on the Kanwariya route, this time, the police have taken it upon themselves to deliver a ‘psychological message’ to avoid trouble. The police have reportedly handed out ‘red cards’ as a warning to some Hindu and Muslim families in the village so that the incidents are not repeated.

“We have secret information that during the Kanwar yatra you might create trouble…with this red card, we are informing you that if you create any trouble during the Kanwar yatra, action will be taken against you. You will be held accountable,” the text on the red card reads according to  The Indian Express .

About 1,500 villagers were also made to sign a ‘symbolic bond’, committing themselves to pay amounts ranging between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh if they created any trouble, the official said. He said drones and CCTV cameras were also deployed over the past few days in the village, to ensure the yatris complete their pilgrimage without any trouble.

Senior officials, however, denied reports that people had shifted out fearing any violence. A spokesperson said a few people may have been away from the village for personal work. “They must have gone for some personal work and by now, many have returned,” Bareilly (Rural) SP Satish Kumar said. “We have deployed adequate force in the village to ensure normalcy and there was no law and order problem today,” the SP said.

District magistrate Virendra Kumar Singh said anti-social elements had fled the village fearing police action.

Meanwhile, reports of commuters being inconvenienced due to the Kanwar Yatra also surfaced. Over the last few days, travellers have complained of huge traffic disruptions by the Kanwariyas, who are seen walking in large groups or riding two-wheelers and trucks, ignoring traffic rules and sometimes wielding hockey sticks.

According to a report in  The Indian Express , local authorities shut down about a 150-kilometre stretch of National Highway 27 from Rudaulin in Faizabad to Khalilabad area of Sant Kabir Nagar between Lucknow and Gorakhpur for the general public to facilitate movement of Kanwariyas. The move forced commuters to take a long detour of pothole-ridden roads, through Barabanki via Gonda. For commuters coming from Gorakhpur, the traffic was stopped at Khalilabad in Sant Kabir Nagar district, about 37 kilometres from Gorakhpur, and they were asked to take either the Balrampur route or the Tanda route to connect back to the National Highway.

The state government also reportedly spent over Rs 14 lakh for hiring the chopper from which senior police officers of the state were seen showering rose petals on Kanwar pilgrims in Meerut and adjoining districts, a gesture the officer seen on camera said was meant to welcome them. According to Economic Times , the chopper was hired from Air Charter Services Pvt Ltd at the cost Rs 14.31 lakh to the state exchequer.

Moreover, according to  The Indian Express , not only did the top police officers shower flowers on the Kanwariyas, the government also made arrangements for DJ music for the yatris.

The DJs took a dig at the previous government which banned loud music during the pilgrimage. “Akhilesh ne hukum sunaya tha, DJ per ban lagaya tha, 2017 ke chunav me Bhole ne usey haraya tha. Chhakke chhuda diye Yogi ne. (Akhilesh had announced an order, DJs were banned; and in 2017 Lord Shiva ensured his defeat; Yogi has cut him to size),” they said while championing the Yogi Adityanath government for allowing DJs to play music: “DJ bajwa diye Yogi ne, Bhole nachwa diye Yogi ne (Yogi switched on the DJ, Yogi let the devotees dance).”

Recently, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too had conducted an aerial survey of the Kanwariya route which passes through the state.

The Uttar Pradesh government faced criticism from the media as the clip showing Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police (Meerut) Prashant Kumar, showering petals on Kanwariyas went viral. The video came to light on the same day as another clip surfaced showing a group of people, some of them apparently pilgrims, smashing a police vehicle in Bulandshahr on Wednesday.

Defending his action, Kumar said that the move had nothing to do with religion and he was only welcoming the pilgrims. On the attack on a police vehicle in Bulandshahr, he told PTI that an FIR has been registered. Kumar said a crowd had assembled on the Kanwariya route following an incident of eve-teasing that led to a quarrel between two families.

A police van which reached the spot bore the brunt of this anger, in the presence of the pilgrims, he said.

The Indian Express  has also accessed a letter, reportedly written by Uttarakhand’s principal secretary to home secretaries in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, asking them to conduct checks of all Kanwarias and their vehicles. In the letter dated 9 July, he had asked administration in neighbouring states to remove tridents, sticks, baseball bats and hockey sticks from their possession and remain vigilant for use of illegal drugs.

“Most of the time, kanwarias carry tridents, baseball bats, hockey sticks and they don’t hesitate to use these weapons whenever they have an argument or fight with anyone. They also fight with shopkeepers and local public, which becomes a major law and order issue,” the letter stated .

A group of Kanwariyas on Tuesday vandalised a car  in Delhi’s Moti Nagar after it brushed past them. A video which surfaced online shows a dozen men smashing the windows of the car with sticks and then tipping the car over. Policemen and spectators are seen watching them in silence. A woman and her husband, who were the occupants of the car managed to step out before they got hurt. Eyewitnesses said the Kanwariyas were blocking the road almost completely, and the car touched the bag of a Kanwariya, leading to the altercation. One Kanwariya has been held in the case.

Every year, thousands of devotees of Lord Shiva take up the Kanwar pilgrimage, walking from their homes in various states to Haridwar and Gangotri in Uttarakhand to fetch pots filled with water from the river Ganga. The water is then offered at their local Shiva shrines on Maha Shivaratri.

With inputs from agencies