By Team Clarion
LUCKNOW — In what many Muslims see as yet another attempt to target their community, police in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad have directed Muslim wedding band operators not to name their groups after Hindu deities.
According to reports, the order followed a complaint lodged on the chief minister’s portal on 9 July by a lawyer named Shabi Sharma. Acting on it, police claimed around 15 to 20 Muslim-owned wedding bands were operating in Moradabad under names linked with Hindu deities.
The city’s Superintendent of Police, Kumar Ranvijay Singh, told Amar Ujala that the band owners were called in on Tuesday and told to change their names. “Everyone has said they will remove the names,” Singh said.
But the decision has triggered anger and disappointment among Muslims in the region. Band owners say that using popular names has been a common practice in business for decades and was never seen as offensive until now.
Mohammad Salman, who runs a small wedding band group in Moradabad, told Clarion India: “We are poor people. Our work depends on marriage season. We never thought naming a band after a common figure was a crime. Suddenly, we are being treated as criminals.”
Another operator, Irfan Ali, said the action was clearly meant to isolate Muslims. “In the wedding band line, most workers are Muslims. If we name our band after a Hindu god, they say we are insulting their deities. If we use Muslim names, people accuse us of hiding identity. Where do we go then?” he asked.
The complainant, lawyer Shabi Sharma, defended his action, saying it was a matter of religious sentiment. He told Hindustan Times: “The business is mostly dominated by Muslims, yet many of them were using names of gods and goddesses. This is an attempt to hide identity. The chief minister himself has demanded action.”
For many Muslims, this reasoning is deeply unfair. Local residents say that in India it has long been common for businesses — restaurants, shops, bands — to use names that are familiar and attract customers. Hindus also frequently run shops and restaurants under Muslim names without facing such restrictions.
This story was originally published in clarionindia.net. Read the full story here.