These days, across the country, especially in Uttar Pradesh, the bulldozer is everywhere, becoming a symbol of repression; not only being used for construction, and removing the encroachments, but also for the political messaging which is loud and clear: no protests or any opposition will ever be tolerated. If the opposition, or the protests for that matter, comes from the members of the Muslim community, then the same is bound to have far-reaching repercussions; one can even lose his or her home as there have been heart-wrenching reports coming out in the aftermath of protests that were held in various parts of Uttar Pradesh following the comments made by Nupur Sharma. Bulldozers are on, raising down the houses of Muslims, tagging them as masterminds behind protests, and throwing the fact that India is a democracy to the wind.
It cannot be a coincidence that the house of a Muslim man who has been tagged as a mastermind behind protests in Uttar Pradesh just turned out to have been constructed illegally, out of nowhere, without the authorities knowing about it. The house looked old, along with several others, hard to believe that the constructions were illegal.
These are all intricacies and mere details, however, the truth is that the air in the country has deteriorated beyond remedy. While the ‘bulldozer baba’ has made it a point that those who have a different point of view will meet the same fate, he does not seem to be seeing that he is setting his own house on fire. He has failed to fathom that he is alienating a community that has always stuck to the ground despite all the odds; has always stood for the unification of the country no matter the circumstances, but today, these people are being pushed to the wall.
It appears that the rule of law seems to have been sent on vacation in Uttar Pradesh and the administration is doing the work of being a judge, jury, and executioner, all by itself. The entire situation calls for immediate attention and action of the judiciary, but, that too seems to be evading the challenge at hand as the Supreme Court on the petition on Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind agreed to hear the matter of alleged undue demolitions in the state, but preferred not to stay the same, directing that “everything should look fair.”
While such an observation is akin to sitting on a fence and watching it all happening, assuring yourself that it looks fair, the same is another dent to the rule of law, which has been already pushed to the back, emboldening those who are misusing the law to settle a political score.
What is happening with the help of bulldozers is not fair and it will never look fair, no matter what the circumstances are. The judiciary needs to open its eyes and ensure that the rule of law is upheld, strengthened, and aided, everywhere in the country, while the ‘saner eyes’ in Delhi, if any, also need to wake up to what is being perpetrated in the state which accounts for over 17 of the total country population, or elsewhere.
