The order of the UP Government that the owners of eateries and other shops, including handcart vendors, along the route of Kanwar Yatris should display their names along with phone numbers and the names of employees appears to be a renewed Hindutva aggressiveness of the BJP after its less than expected performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. As per the media reports, Uttarakhand and the Ujjain Municipality also have issued such orders. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation, in an order on July 21, asked all meat and poultry shops on the Kanwar Yatra route to remain closed for the month of Shravan.

Yogi Adityanath has already proved to be a hardliner within the Sangh Parivar, and the latest order of his government is in tune with the aggressive, discriminative and divisive policies he has been implementing ever since he became the Chief Minister of UP. The credit for inventing bulldozer justice goes to him. Other BJP chief ministers have blindly copied the divisive and disastrous experiments of Yogi Adityanath, as they don't have any creative ideas of their own to influence people, especially the majority community.

Some political observers and analysts link the drastic decision of Yogi Adityanath with the rift between him and the central BJP leaders. As reported in the media, UP state BJP leaders like deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had met Amit Shah and the BJP President JP Nadda. They discussed the developments after the poor performance of the BJP in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. A group of state leaders who accuse Yogi Adityanath of being responsible for the poor show of the BJP seems to have the support of the central leaders, particularly PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. It is rumoured that Yogi Adityanath is slated to succeed JP Nadda, who has been inducted into the Union cabinet and whose extended tenure as BJP national president ended in June. Nonetheless, Yogi Adityanath is not prepared to leave the CM post.

The order of Yogi Adityanath for eateries and shopkeepers to display their names along the routes of Kanwar Yatris appears to have been taken without consulting the central leadership. Yogi wants to prove he is the real Hindutva protagonist, not Modi and Amit Shah. Along with challenging the central BJP leaders, he is proclaiming to the Hindutva subscribers that only he has the guts to make such an aggressive decision. The central leadership of the BJP is in a fix concerning the order of Yogi Adityanath. If the central leadership asks the CM to withdraw the order, it will be blamed for not supporting Hindutva, and if it remains neutral, it will be deemed a submission to Yogi.

Whatever the political context of the order, it is discriminative and divisive. The objective of the order, according to the police department, is to avoid "confusion." This argument appears to be puerile. Instead of displaying the names, it would have been enough to display the names of items available in the eateries or shops. It was reported in the media that some police personnel were forcing the shopkeepers to write their full name, including their surname. In India, surname generally indicates caste, whereas the name indicates religion. It is also reported in the media that some shopkeepers have already removed Muslim employees for a month. The real purpose of the order is to profile the religious and caste identities of the owners of those shops and the people employed there so that Kanwar Yatris can easily avoid these shops. This is a clever strategy to normalise the social and economic boycott of Muslims and the perpetuation of Untouchability.

The order to display the names of the owners on the boards of the shops they own is exactly in the manner done in Hitler's Germany to identify shops of Jews. It would make them easy targets of discrimination and exclusion. This devious strategy can also be extended to other essential services. In view of ostracising the minorities, the BJP governments may, in future, make it mandatory for all service providers to display their religious and caste identities.

Yogi Adityanath's order is diametrically opposed to the core Indian Constitutional values, especially FRATERNITY. Murder of the Constitution is taking place through the cunning policies and actions of the BJP government at the centre and in the states. That could be the reason for the Supreme Court delivering an interim stay of the order in response to the PILs filed by Delhi University professor Apoorvanand, human rights activist Aakar Patel, the Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra and Association for Protection of Civil Rights.

While hearing the matter, Justice Bhatti shared a personal anecdote about two hotels in Kerala, one run by a Hindu and the other by a Muslim. Justice Bhatti said that he would often visit the vegetarian hotel owned by a Muslim because the person maintained international standards of hygiene. This anecdote demonstrates that a person's religion and caste have no relationship with the quality of the items he/she sells.

It is pertinent to note the response of Nadeem Khan, National Secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, to the interim verdict of the SC. "This landmark ruling is a decisive blow against the politics of hatred and the remnants of colonial-era policing, reaffirming that true governance is rooted in equality and justice for all."

The opposition parties have condemned the order, and the NDA partners, Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Lok Dal, asked the UP government to withdraw it. Congress called it an assault on shared Indian culture, with party leader Priyanka Gandhi calling it a "crime against the Constitution."

The statements and actions of the BJP leaders after the party failed to get an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha have proven that the party is bereft of new ideas to regain its lost ground. It aggressively implements the methodology of Majoritarian communalism with increased vigour, targeting minorities, especially Muslims. The decision of the Union Government to lift a 58-year-old ban on government servants being members of the RSS is to be seen as part of the aggressive Hindutva. The opposition parties indicate the BJP in government trying to create an "ideologically committed bureaucracy."

The RSS was banned thrice, being accused of anti-national activities. Although RSS is presented as a cultural organisation, it is through and through a political organisation in its intent and ideology. BJP is the political wing of the RSS. In a democracy, government servants are expected to be non-political and impartial in fulfilling their functions and responsibilities. Allowing them to join a politically motivated organisation will seriously compromise their impartiality. They can be used as the agents of the party in power to impose its ideology on the people of India. During the last ten years, the Modi government has appointed many hard-core RSS men as heads of government institutions, universities and cultural organisations. Lifting the ban makes the process of saffronisation of the bureaucracy easier.

It has been a strategy of the BJP to convert Hindu religious festivals and pilgrimages as a means of political mobilisation. Crores of rupees have been given as subsidies to people going on pilgrimage to different Hindu pilgrim centres, besides spending huge amounts on renewing and restructuring temples under the pretext of promoting religious tourism. During the last decade, Kanwar yatra has assumed the form of a huge political mobilisation with greater involvement of the BJP governments and MPs and MLAs. Banning the sale of non-vegetarian food items along the route of the Kanwar Yatris and Yogi Adityanath government showering flower petals on the Kanwar Yatris from helicopters are two examples of greater involvement of the BJP governments.

The behaviour of Kanwar Yatris also indicates the increasing politicisation of Kanwar Yatra. It was reported in the Indian Express on July 21 that a group of Kanwariyas, heading to Haridwar with water collected from Ganga, ransacked an eatery-Tau Hokke Wala Haryanvi Tourist Dhaba- on Delhi-Haridwar National Highway after finding onion slices in the food eaten by them. The agitated kanwariyas assaulted the dhaba workers and ransacked the furniture and the refrigerator in the dhaba. They targeted the chef, too, but he managed to escape. According to the Indian Express report, the Dhaba owner, Pramod Kumar, said he was unaware that Kanwariyas did not even consume onions. How can spiritual people indulge in violence? Yogi Adityanath and the BJP have to answer this fundamental question.

The policies and actions of the BJP governments, both at the centre and in the states, clearly indicate that they are determined to push forward at any cost the process of converting India into Hindutva Rashtra, as envisaged by the RSS ideologues, even without changing the Constitution. In the absence of a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, a change of the Constitution appears to be a herculean task during the next five years. Hence, the BJP could test or experiment with different unconstitutional methods.

Against this backdrop, only an alert Opposition and civil society can save democracy and the Constitution of India. The response of the judiciary may depend to a great extent on the alertness and vigour of the Opposition and the civil society. Stiff opposition to the order of the UP and Uttarakhand governments to display the names of owners and staff of eateries and shops along the route of Kanwar Yatris resulted in a court verdict in favour of the Constitutional ideals and principles. The unconstitutional order of the UP and Uttarakhand governments is an example of the everyday murder of democracy and the Indian Constitution by the BJP governments both at the centre and in the states.