On the first day of 2025, the chief of Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad, Mahant Ravindra Puri, asserted that non-Hindus should not be allowed to set up shops at the Mahakumbh-2025 in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
In a statement to the news agency IANS, Puri said, “We have said that tea shops, juice stalls, and flower shops should not be allowed for them. If they are given these shops, they will spit and urinate, and our Naga saints will be forced to take action.”
He further said, “Our fair must be beautiful, clean, grand, divine, and peaceful. It is essential to keep non-Hindus away to maintain the safety and sanctity of the event.” If such an incident happens and someone gets offended or spoiled, it will send the wrong message all around the globe.
Earlier this week, PM Narendra Modi, in his final Mann ki Baat episode of the year hailed the upcoming Kumbh Mela as a unique scene of unity and diversity.
PM said, “The speciality of the Maha Kumbh is not only in its vastness. The speciality of the Kumbh is also in its diversity. Crores of people congregate for this event. Lakhs of saints, thousands of traditions, hundreds of sects, many akharas, everyone becomes a part of this event. There is no discrimination anywhere, no one is big, no one is small. Such a scene of unity in diversity will not be seen anywhere else in the world,”
The Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP) had already proposed to ban non-Hindus from opening food stores in the Mela area during Mahakumbh. The development comes in the wake of many instances where accused hailing from the Muslim community were caught on camera soiling food items by spiting on them. There were numerous such cases in UP in 2024.
On September 12 2024, a video of a teenager spitting on rotis while making them at an eatery in Saharanpur district went viral on social media, prompting the arrest of the facility’s owner.
A juice vendor in the Ghaziabad area was arrested last week after offering clients fruit juice mixed with pee. In June, police in Noida detained two men for peddling juice contaminated with human spit.
In September 2024, the CM of UP, Yogi Adityanath, took cognisance of incidences of spitting and mixing urine in food in UP and directed that the names and addresses of operators, proprietors, and managers be prominently displayed at all food establishments.
Also Read: Maha Kumbh Mela: Where Rituals and Holy Dips Embody the Soul of India’s Spiritual Legacy
The Maha kumbh will begin on January 13, 2025. Efforts are being made to keep the environment clean and litter-free for visitors, while Prayagraj’s infrastructure is being rebuilt to meet global urban standards using current technologies, providing a long-term and visually pleasing experience for everybody.
