The BBC reports that a man in Mumbai will keep the name of his restaurant “Hitler’s Cross” despite protests from the local Jewish community.

“My customers are not complaining about the name, they are very amused by it,” he said. “Just like Hitler wanted to conquer the world, I want to conquer at least my area through the food served in my restaurant.”

Great. Now you know where to find all the Nazi sympathizers, conveniently collected into a restaurant in India. Clearly this man thinks a genocidal maniac is someone to idolize. Or does he…

Mr Sabhlok also said he was not promoting Hitler in any manner as he did not have any pictures of the German Nazi leader or decor related to him.

When questioned about press photographs of a huge Hitler poster at the front door, Mr Sabhlok said it was put up by one of the 700 invitees who attended the opening. “We pulled it off later,” he said.

I can just imagine him saying “Oh, you mean that picture? That’s someone else’s.” Of course it is, because restaurant guests always bring a giant picture of Hitler with them to dinner and post it on the front door.

So he’s saying he wants to be just like Hitler, but not like Hitler in any way. Hmmm, that sort of double-speak sounds strangely similar to something Hitler would have said. So the big question is whether the officials will have the sense to shut this place down before it becomes a serious saftey issue (please note I have avoided any tasteless “to die for” jokes), and whether/how restaurant laws will be forced change in India as a result.

Edited to add (8/29/2006): Looks like the BBC report may have been a few days stale. NewKerala.com reported that the protests began August 18th when the restaurant opened and by the 24th the restaurant announced it would give up the name:

“We, the owners and operators of the restaurant opened at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, acknowledge that the name adopted by us for our restaurant was most inappropriate.

“We have decided to change the name of our restaurant and remove all signs and articles associated with Hitler and Nazism in and around the restaurant,” the statement said.

It will now be called The Pol Pot. No, not really. But you never know.