India’s ‘bulldozer justice’ against Muslims decried
Minority group facing backlash from activism
LUCKNOW, India – Protests have been erupting in many Indian cities to condemn the demolition of homes and businesses belonging to Muslims, in what critics call a growing pattern of “bulldozer justice” aimed at punishing activists from the minority group.
On Sunday, authorities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh rode on a bulldozer to raze the home of Javed Ahmad, who they said was connected to Muslim religious protests that turned violent last Friday. Police arrested Ahmad on Saturday.
The protests were sparked by derogatory remarks about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad made recently by two spokespeople of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The party suspended one and expelled the other, issuing a rare statement saying it “strongly denounces insults of any religious personalities.”
Bulldozers also crushed the properties of protesters in two other cities in Uttar Pradesh last week. In April, authorities in New Delhi used bulldozers to destroy Muslim-owned shops days after communal violence in which dozens were arrested. Similar incidents have been reported in other states.
“The demolitions are a gross violation of constitutional norms and ethics,” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a specialist on Hindu nationalist politics and biographer of Modi, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, 12 prominent people, including former Supreme Court and High Court judges and lawyers, sent a letter to India’s chief justice urging him to hold a hearing on the demolitions, calling them illegal and “a form of collective extrajudicial punishment.”
Two people who were protesting the remarks by the governing party spokespeople died of gunshot injuries in clashes with police last Friday in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state.
Several Muslim-majority countries have also criticized the remarks, and protesters in Bangladesh called for a boycott of Indian products.
Violence has been increasing against Muslims by Hindu nationalists emboldened by Modi’s regular silence on such attacks since he was elected prime minister in 2014.
Over the weekend, Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, told state authorities to demolish illegal buildings belonging to people linked to Friday’s protests, in which more than 300 people were arrested.
On Sunday, bulldozers turned Ahmad’s house into rubble after authorities claimed it was built illegally, which Ahmad’s lawyer and family denied.
“If the construction was illegal, why was no action taken earlier? Why did the government wait until the riot took place?” asked Shaukat Ali of the All India Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen, a political party.
On Saturday, Adityanath’s media adviser tweeted a photo of a bulldozer and wrote: “To the rioters, remember every Friday is followed by a Saturday,” suggesting repercussions.