Modi’s coalition partners remind BJP of limits to Hindu nationalist agenda in restaurant naming row

NEW DELHI - India’s Supreme Court extended on July 26 a decision that suspended a requirement for owners of restaurants and other businesses along an important Hindu pilgrimage route to display their names on their shopfronts.

The court order was seen as protecting Muslim business owners in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand from discrimination. The two states had earlier ordered all business owners to display their names.

Significantly, even before the court moved to temporarily strike down the controversial order by the two states, which are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), some of the party’s coalition partners had been vocal in opposing the order.

Following the BJP’s loss of its decade-long parliamentary majority at the recent election, analysts said this episode highlights how the party is facing pushback on some of the items on its agenda for its core Hindu supporters, since it is now reliant on coalition partners to govern.

“Definitely, it will be tougher for the BJP. It’s not that there will be an ideological blockade to all things central to the Hindu nationalistic agenda. The coalition partners will decide on issue to issue,” said author and political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.

“On matters with strong public opinion, as it happened with putting names on roadside stalls, the allies did speak out,” he said.

Pilgrimage issue

The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage where devotees of Lord Shiva walk hundreds of kilometres through multiple states to different pilgrimage sites along the Ganges river to collect its waters, considered holy by Hindus. The water is then offered to Lord Shiva temples.

The two-week pilgrimage started on July 22 and will end on Aug 6. Pilgrims typically follow a strictly vegetarian diet during the journey.

The order for businesses to prominently list the food they serve and their owners’ names was ostensibly aimed to help pilgrims better adhere to their religious dietary restrictions, according to the state governments.

It was announced by Uttar Pradesh on July 19, with Uttarakhand doing the same soon after. The Supreme Court, which observed that owners of eateries should not be forced to display their names, had extended the stay to other states along the pilgrimage route, such as Madhya Pradesh, to prevent them from following suit.

Critics have argued that the order is divisive and detrimental to promoting communal harmony.

Three BJP allies – the secular Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal – had opposed the order even before the Supreme Court stayed it on July 22 and extended the stay on July 26.

Before the court order, Mr K.C. Tyagi, spokesman for the Janata Dal (United), a BJP ally with 12 seats in Parliament, said the order is in violation of the Prime Minister’s own slogan of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, or “everyone together, development for all”.

Mr Chirag Paswan, chief of Lok Janshakti Party, said: “Whenever there is such a divide in the name of caste or religion, I absolutely do not support it or encourage it.”

Another controversy erupted along the Kanwar Yatra route after the facades of two mosques and a shrine were covered with large white cloth on July 26 in the holy city of Haridwar. Tourism Minister of Uttarakhand Satpal Maharaj was quoted as saying in the Indian media that this was done to “prevent trouble”. Amid objections by the locals, the cloth was removed the same day.

Hindu dominance

Over the last decade, the ruling party has fulfilled some big-ticket items that had been core demands among its Hindu nationalist supporters. These include the removal of the special status of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

In January, the BJP fulfilled another core promise with the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, a point of contention between Hindus and Muslims. A Supreme Court decision in 2019 awarded the disputed land to Hindus after a long legal battle.

“Some people would say the main agenda of the BJP mostly has been achieved in their last (second) term,” noted Dr Sandeep Shastri, national coordinator of the Lokniti Network, a network of scholars that conducts election surveys.

“But on smaller issues (like the order to display names at eateries), it will be interesting to see how they negotiate with allies,” he added.

Dr Shastri noted that the Supreme Court order had helped to prevent the BJP’s disagreement with allies over the display of owners’ names at eateries from deepening.

Uniform Civil Code

Still, the one big unfinished agenda of the BJP is the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which is its key promise in the third term.

The UCC seeks to unify India’s multiple personal laws based on religion and traditions guiding issues like marriage, inheritance, divorce and adoptions.

But the idea of a uniform code has triggered unease among minorities and tribal communities, fearing an erosion of their unique customs and traditions.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has maintained that the UCC, which grants equal inheritance rights to both men and women among other things, is anti-diversity.

Analysts said it would be tougher to push through the UCC at a national level, given the BJP’s dependence on allies which have large Muslim support bases.

“I very much doubt that they can do it (at the national level),” said Mr Mukhopadhyay, noting that the BJP appears to be looking to work around this by implementing the UCC at the state level, starting with Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand government announced it would implement the code by Nov 9, after passing the UCC Bill into law on Feb 7 amid opposition from some Muslim groups.

The BJP’s coalition partners, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United), have not commented on the state-level implementation of the UCC in Uttarakhand. On the national level, though, both parties have said it would require discussions and that no unilateral decision should be taken. 

Budget goodies

For now, the BJP is sitting comfortably with its allies after the presentation of its Budget on July 23.

In a clear nod to key allies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated 150 billion rupees (S$2.4 billion) in financial aid through multilateral agencies to Andhra Pradesh state, where the TDP is in power.

The BJP also announced several schemes, including road connectivity projects worth 260 billion rupees in Bihar state, where the Janata Dal (United) is in power. 

“This support from the Centre (federal government) will go a long way towards rebuilding Andhra Pradesh,” said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in a post on social media platform X. 

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that Satpal Maharaj is Tourism Minister of Uttar Pradesh instead of Uttarakhand. This has been corrected. We are sorry for the error.