MUMBAI, JULY 24: Angered by a printed message on a restaurant bill that criticized the UPA government for its various scams and for imposing a service tax on airconditioned restaurants, Congress workers forced the closure of the eatery in Parel in central Mumbai on Monday. 

Aditi Restaurant near KEM Hospital had to down shutters at 4pm on Monday after Congress workers staged protests outside the place and shouted slogans. It reopened on Tuesday. 

The restaurant was issuing bills to customers which had a message at the bottom of the printed receipt that read, "As per UPA govt eating money (2G, coal, CWG scam ) is a necessity and eating food in AC restaurants is a luxury." The Mumbai police filed a non-cognizable offence against the hotel on Monday for printing defamatory statements, while the Congress workers were booked only after their action had invited condemnation on Tuesday. 

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi too tweeted against the Congress's action, calling it the "height of intolerance".

Forced to down shutters on Monday after Congress workers protested against its anti-UPA bill, Aditi Restaurant at Parel re-opened on Tuesday after its owner, Shrinivas Shetty , agreed to withdraw the critical comments from the printed receipt. Though Shetty refused to comment on the matter, sources in the hotel industry said the printed message at the bottom of the bill was being circulated over the last two days. They said the Congress should be open to criticism and should understand the complaints that hoteliers have against the imposition of service tax. 

Shashikant Shetty, hotelier and general secretary of AHAR, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said, "The government has levied service tax on all AC restaurants, and also for the non-AC sections, which customers feel is highly unfair. What he [owner of Aditi restaurant ] did was to air the views of the public at large through the footnote on printed receipts, the only mode of communication available to him. Every citizen has a right to express his opinion." Hotelier Pradip Shetty said, "There appears to be growing intolerance towards what are the fundamental rights of the public. With changing times, the establishment must change its perception towards social and public opinion. After all, encouragement of social, cultural and political freedom is the hallmark of a true democracy." AHAR sources said that Aditi restaurant mostly caters to poor people coming to hospitals in the area, so there were complaints about high billing due to taxes. The owner , they said, had given expression to those complaints through a footnote in the bill. Senior inspector at Bhoiwada police station Sunil Tondwalkar said the hotel ran smoothly on Tuesday and there was no problem. 

Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh and additional commissioner of police (central region) Praveen Salunke said an offence had been registered in the case against both the mob and the hotel owner. 

The Mumbai Pradesh Youth Congress's Pratik Nakate , meanwhile, said that he and other Congress workers had acted legally and requested the police through a written application to take action against the hotel for defaming the party and the government. Nakate said the police was not informed about the protest but justified the action of Congress workers. Asked if any case had been registered against him or his party workers, Nakate said he and his party workers were the complainants against the owner, so there was no question of the police booking them. Nakate was unaware that the police had booked him and said they had no reason to do so as he and his party workers, too, had a right to express their views. Restaurant owners across the nation have been staging protests against the imposition of service tax by the government in addition to the Value Added Tax.