feeds from sacw.net
print versiona select compilation [updated on June 16, 2022]
The Hindu, June 17, 2022
Bulldozer injustice to ‘teach a lesson’ | Madan B. Lokur https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/bulldozer-injustice-to-teach-a-lesson/article65534064.ece?homepage=true
Deccan Herald, June 16, 2022
Understanding Yogi Adityanath’s bulldozer politics | Bharat Bhushan
o o
Editorial
Bulldozer on the loose: On demolition of property of Muslim activists
June 16, 2022
The demolition of property of Muslim activists is a challenge to the rule of law
The demolition of houses and buildings linked to protesters in Uttar Pradesh is nothing but retribution and collective punishment targeted at Muslims. The destruction of the residence of Javed Mohammed, Welfare Party of India activist and businessman, in Prayagraj, shortly after he was identified by the police as an alleged conspirator behind the violence during a protest, amply demonstrates this. The fig-leaf of legality attached to the claim that the action by the Prayagraj Development Authority was to clear an illegal building has been blown away by the fact that the notice of demolition was addressed to Mr. Mohammed, and not to his wife, who owns the property. The family’s charge that the notice was served only a day before the demolition and backdated to May 10 cannot be brushed aside. It is well-known that the removal of encroachments or illegal constructions cannot take place without due process, which includes giving the owner or occupier an opportunity to be heard and finding alternative accommodation under any existing rehabilitation scheme. That officials claimed that the notice was served on Mr. Mohammed based on local enquiries shows that they were only following orders to demolish the building and had not bothered to verify the record of ownership before action. Earlier, soon after violence was witnessed in Kanpur, the city’s development authority demolished a commercial building allegedly linked to one of the accused in the case.
The latest demolitions are linked to the protests that took place in the wake of controversial remarks made by the now-suspended BJP spokesperson [ . . . ]
o o
Machine rule: Editorial on BJP’s ’bulldozer’ tactics
The disregard for due process and for the rule of law among those who run these machines is palpable
The Editorial Board | Published 15.06.22, 02:07 AM
None can raise a finger at the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for not keeping his word when it comes to intimidation. Even before he was returned to power, Yogi Adityanath had assured that bulldozers — the Bharatiya Janata Party’s new emblem? — would return. He has been true to his dire warning. Even though protests had broken out in several parts of the country against the intemperate remarks by a former spokesperson of the BJP against Prophet Mohammed, it is in Mr Adityanath’s fief where protesters and opponents find themselves bulldozed, almost literally, once again. The dwelling of an activist, allegedly involved in the latest protests, was razed: the administration served a notice of demolition for ‘illegal encroachment’ barely a day earlier. Similar transgressions were reported earlier too and not just in UP: the poor and the minorities have borne the brunt in Madhya Pradesh and in Delhi. The disregard for due process and for the rule of law among those who run these machines is palpable. The State has not honoured the principle of appeal from the accused on most occasions. The vile intent seems to be to tarnish and target a particular community. It is not surprising that several petitioners have approached the court against this aggression. But they await justice. The irony is that the demolition is couched in a rhetoric of righteousness. Worse, there is significant endorsement for Mr Adityanath’s purported template of strongarm justice within the electorate. It is indicative of the depth of the rot.
The BJP, unsurprisingly, seeks to milk the image of being a vigilante for political ends. Unfortunately, both the bluster and the vindictiveness seem to be selective. Why, for instance, have not bulldozers been despatched to the heated border in Ladakh? They could be useful in dismantling the formidable constructions that the Chinese are said to be building after encroaching on Indian territory. The blowback from West Asia — the source of remittances, oil and energy for New Delhi — after the controversial remarks also forced the BJP to suddenly discover the merit of respecting all faiths. The critics are perhaps too formidable to be bulldozed — allegorically speaking. The only edifice that appears vulnerable and, hence, irresistible is India’s pluralist ethos.
o o
The Indian Express, June 14, 2022
Editorial
Demolition squad
The rampaging bulldozer is the state thumbing its nose at the court — and the rule of law. It needs a firm check
UP protestors, Bulldozer, Uttar Pradesh, UP govt, India news, Indian express, Indian express news, current affairs, express EditorialEarlier, the Kanpur Development Authority bulldozed a building the district police alleged belonged to a close relative of the accused in the June 3 violence.
The Uttar Pradesh government’s bulldozer drive, targeting the protester and political opponent, and, by joining the dots, a community, is becoming predictable — that should not take away from the fact that it violates due process. That the Yogi Adityanath administration should wrap its actions in self-righteous claims of the tough state moving against “anti-social” elements, and that UP officials and politicians should boast about “Saturdays” following “Fridays”, and “return gifts” to the riot-accused, marks a new level of brutalisation in public discourse. The latest episode — the razing on Sunday, with barely a day’s notice, of the house of political activist and businessman Mohammad Javed, accused of conspiracy in the June 10 violence after the Friday protests against Nupur Sharma’s remarks on the Prophet in Prayagraj — comes a day after the bulldozer demolished “illegal construction” in the residences of two accused of Friday’s violence in Saharanpur.
Earlier, the Kanpur Development Authority bulldozed a building the district police alleged belonged to a close relative of the accused in the June 3 violence.
There is a clear and sordid pattern: In an eco-system where violations of municipal and urban planning laws are rampant, bulldozers are being used to selectively punish and subdue. That even the requirement of adequate notice, or the opportunity to appeal, is being dispensed with, is no mere technical issue — it is, as former Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Govind Mathur told this newspaper, “totally illegal… a question of rule of law”. Of course, the bulldozer is neither accidental nor incidental in the BJP regime in UP. In the last assembly election, Yogi Adityanath, who won a second term as chief minister, was projected as “Bulldozer Baba”. Since 2019, there have been indications of the new playbook: If earlier, properties belonging to alleged gangsters were attached under the UP Gangsters and Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act, now they were also being razed, even if the matter was still being heard. Among the affected, SP leaders or former BJP leaders who had joined other parties, figured disproportionately. The administration has expanded the use of bulldozers to put pressure on accused to surrender, and as punitive action against those involved in public protest or accused of violence.
This brutish bulldozer policy the UP government has made its calling card has travelled wider, as the demolitions in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri and in Madhya Pradesh showed. It is now under substantive challenge in three courts — Supreme Court, Allahabad High Court and Madhya Pradesh High Court. It has been challenged as a violation of due process and fundamental rights, but in all three courts, the cases sit on ice. This is distressing. In a constitutional democracy, the bulldozer on a rampage is the state thumbing its nose at the court, the DM and SP playing judge and jury — and loyal executioners. They need to be checked, firmly.
o o
The Times of India, June 13, 2022
Editorial
System ‘bull-dazed’: As bulldozers roll on, higher courts almost seem to be in a daze. They must respond
June 13, 2022
Bulldozers are posing a challenge to constitutional rights. But our higher courts are not responding. It’s as if they are in a daze. Or, perhaps we should say, in a ‘bull-daze’ – a state of systemic passivity when confronted with governments’ unconstitutional use of force. With more house demolitions, in UP and MP, and Gujarat, Assam, Tripura and Delhi civic authorities already in the bulldozer club, violations of basic rights are widespread. But the wheels of justice are moving far slower than the tracks of bulldozers. MP high court issued notices in April following demolitions after Khargone riots – so far, nothing has happened. The Supreme Court’s next hearing after staying the April 20 demolitions in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri is listed for August. Courts must show much more urgency. HCs and SC can even take suo motu notice because courts’ core duty of determining guilt and punishment, premised on due process, is at stake.
A chance to correct this comes via the petition filed in Allahabad HC on Monday against the Prayagraj house demolition. The petition noted that the house was owned by the wife of the person accused of organising ‘violent demonstrations’. This brings into stark focus one of the worst aspects of bulldozer action. Not only is guilt being determined outside courts, punishment is being meted out to the family of the accused. The concept of collective punishment was popular in Middle Ages, and even codified in law. To state the obvious, it has no place in constitutional democracies. Yet, over the last couple of years, and particularly over the last few weeks, bulldozers ordered by state officials are posing a dangerous question to the rule of law.
It falls to higher courts to create a judicial barrier to bulldozer ‘justice’. It’s unlikely that any CM or municipal authority would defy judges. When courts make strong interventions, even recalcitrant systems correct themselves. A fine recent example is SC’s directions on the Lakhimpur Kheri probe. The justice system, for all its limitations, still works as a protector of citizens’ rights. It cannot remain ‘bull-dazed’.
o o
ndtv - June 13, 2022
Bulldozer ka Insaaf
Prime Time With Ravish Kumar | Brazen Bulldozing Of Law: Can State Play Judge, Jury And Executioner?
o o
June 14, 2022
India: Excessive use of force, arbitrary detention and punitive measures against protesters must end immediately
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA
PRESS RELEASE
Indian authorities must immediately put an end to the excessive use of force in response to large scale protests in the country that has resulted in the death of at least two people, including a child, and in many others suffering injuries since last Friday, Amnesty International India said today. The organization also called for the immediate and unconditional release of those arbitrarily arrested solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
In the last few days, thousands of people took to the streets in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and Telangana calling for the arrest of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, the former spokespersons for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling political party, for making statements deemed insulting of Prophet Mohammed in a prime-time TV news debate.
“The Government of India is selectively and viciously cracking down on Muslims who dare to speak up and peacefully express their dissent against the discrimination faced by them. Cracking down on protesters with excessive use of force, arbitrary detention and punitive house demolitions by Indian authorities is in complete violation of India’s commitments under international human rights law and standards,” said Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India Board.
On 10 June, media reported an incident where, police personnel can be seen striking batons, pelting stones and shooting bystanders during protests in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Another bystander was shot six times by the police while returning from the market. Two protesters including a 15-year-old child was fatally shot in the head by the police. Under the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, police may only use force for a legitimate law enforcement purpose and may not use more force than needed to achieve this objective. Moreover, police may use firearms only as a last resort and when strictly necessary to protect themselves or others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury; the intentional lethal use of firearms is only permissible if strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.
In another video reported by multiple media outlets and shared by many on Twitter including the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a police officer is repeatedly hitting detained male protesters with batons in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh while they cry in fear and pain and one protester complains of a fractured arm. Instead of criticizing the use of force, it was celebrated by former police officers and BJP politicians on social media. Baton strikes while a subject is under control are unnecessary and disproportionate, and amount to using batons punitively – which amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, a violation of international law.
“Presenting and treating all protesters, including peaceful ones, as a threat for public order is deeply worrying and is part of an alarming escalation of the states’ measures targeting Muslims. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister and various state chief ministers have done little to show that they disapprove of any statement portraying Muslims as a risk for public order or embedding other stereotypes and prejudices that may contribute to justifying discrimination and violence against Muslims. They should publicly show their opposition for any such statement” said Aakar Patel.
Instead, in a continuing blow to human rights, the authorities carried out the unlawful and arbitrary demolition of houses belonging to Muslims suspected of being “key conspirators” of the violence that erupted during the protests in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. On 10 June, activist Javed Mohammed, his wife and younger daughter were detained along with many others by the police. On 11 June, a backdated notice was pasted on the wall of the family’s house at 11pm in the night before the planned demolition. Javed Mohammed and his elder daughter Afreen Fatima, a student activist, have been vocal in their criticism of the government specially against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act. While the authorities cited illegal construction as the reason for demolition, the notice was issued in the name of Javed Mohammed who did not even own the demolished property. On 12 June, the authorities demolished the two-storey house amounting to a punitive measure and a violation of the right to adequate housing. Houses of many other protesters were similarly demolished in Uttar Pradesh.
It is evident that in the absence of any genuine consultation and a complete departure from due process of law, these demolitions stand in absolute violation of the right to adequate housing as enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which India is a state party and has been done to inflict punishment on the community for raising their voices against injustice.
“The State’s response to current protests is not only deplorable but also marks the latest escalation in the suppression of dissent. The Indian authorities must carry out a prompt, thorough, effective, impartial and independent investigation into all the human rights violations allegedly committed by law enforcement officials and other public officials against protesters and human rights defenders. Law enforcement officials who used the force excessively should be charged, whenever there is enough evidence. Victims should also have access to reparations including compensation,” said Aakar Patel.
o o
Former SC, HC Judges, Lawyers Issue ’Urgent Appeal to SC to Take Note of UP State Repression’
’We hope and trust the Supreme Court will rise to the occasion and not let the citizens and the Constitution down at this critical juncture,’ write 12 prominent former judges and senior advocates.
o o
India’s punitive demolitions bear striking resemblance to Israel’s tactics against Palestinians
Under Narendra Modi, the country is looking more like Israel. The real tragedy is that a large chunk of the majority is delighted about this metamorphosis.
by Angshuman Choudhury
India’s punitive demolitions bear striking resemblance to Israel’s tactics against Palestinians
Left: Bulldozers raze the home of Muslim activist Javed Mohammed in Prayagraj on June 12. (Right) Israeli border policemen stand guard as machinery demolishes a Palestinian structure, in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in March 2022. | Reuters and PTI
A home is not merely an upright structure made of soil and steel. It is an oasis of security, stability and privacy. It is an oasis of memories and aspirations, a melting pot of emotions. It is also a complex aggregate of time and space, a stack of many joys and sorrows. In a world of strange absurdities, it is a site of familiarity.
That is why the act of demolishing a home is particularly brutal. It is more than a physical assault on four walls and a roof. It is an emotional offensive against memories, an unsparing strike at the heart of an entire world that is built on top of several layers of hopes and dreams. It is an act of total erasure, of memoricide.
These are realities that both the perpetrator and the victim are aware of during and after the act of demolition. In fact, it is this mutual awareness of the scale and significance of the brutality of razing a house that the perpetrator uses to destroy their victims – they know it is harder, sharper and way more lethal than the spiked edges of a bulldozer’s mechanised arm.
The act of demolition is also theatrical. The perpetrator creates and uses this drama in abundance to conjure a grand spectacle of ruin, which itself becomes punishment for the victim.
What is more humiliating than seeing bulldozers laying waste to your homestead in broad daylight, as neighbours or distant strangers on television sets and smartphones spectate, either helplessly or gleefully?
Israeli ‘war crimes’
In the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel practices something known as “punitive demolitions”. Israeli authorities often bulldoze Palestinian homes as punishment for “terrorism” – a reality well documented by the United Nations Human Rights Office and even flagged as a war crime.
What is notable about this policy of punitive demolitions is that it is meant to be a form ofcollective punishment, designed to punish those related to the accused, instead of the accused themselves. The practice dates back to the period of the British Mandate of Palestine, which began in 1923 and lasted for over two decades, when authorities used it as a “deterrence” against insurgents.
What is happening in India today is strikingly similar. When authorities in Prayagraj bulldozed activist Javed Mohammed’s house on Sunday, he had already been arrested.
But the demolition did what it was meant to do – punish his entire family (wife and two daughters). One of the two siblings, Afreen Fatima, also remains under the police scanner for her vocal activism. The others were punished for the mere “crime” of familial association with Mohammed.
But it was not just about Mohammed and his family.
The menacing theatrics of the demolition, backed by heavy machinery and police deployment around the neighbourhood, was carefully designed to intimidate other Muslim activists who might be planning to mobilise against the ruling regime. Much like war, this is politics by other means.
It is not just the policy’s intent that bears uncanny similarity in both India and Israel, but also the bluntness in their official framing.
Israeli authorities have stated on record that the demolitions are meant to send “a severe message of deterrence to terrorists and their accomplices – that they will pay a price if they continue their terrorist activities and harm innocent people.”
In India, senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been blatant about using house demolitions as punishment.
But, in both Israel and India, lower level executive authorities offer some pretence of legality through instruments such as eviction notices. It is done in a specific manner, just hours prior to the demolition so as to deny any time to the residents to seek legal recourse.
Writing about house demolitions in Palestine, Israeli-American anthropologist and Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jeff Halper, notes in his book Obstacles to Peace: “In Jerusalem, a favored practice is to deliver an order at night by placing it somewhere near the targeted home, then arriving early in the morning to demolish.”
According to media reports, this is exactly how the events seem to have transpired in the case of the demolition of Mohammed’s house on June 12. Swift action, undertaken with just a tinge of legality, seems to be the tactic of choice.
This loose touch of legality is then used by the pro-regime media and social media ecosystem as a post-facto justification for the demolition.
Setting a precedent
Mohammed’s house is not the first to be arbitrarily bulldozed in recent times. It follows a series of other such demolitions in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Yet, the demolition of Muslim homes is not an entirely new or unique feature of the BJP-ruled Hindi heartland or even the party’s rule in India. It has happened before elsewhere in different forms and degrees.
For instance, the BJP-led state government in Assam has been deploying it with greater frequency and intensity since around 2019. In fact, the practice of bulldozing shanty settlements of mostly Bengal-origin Muslims predates the BJP’s rule in Assam. Although equally violent and dehumanising, these demolitions are somewhat different from the more recent ones in the Hindi heartland.
Unlike the Israeli-style punitive demolitions, the Assam demolitions are primarily meant to physically evict and hence, territorially dislodge a set of people who are seen as “illegal immigrants”, “aliens” and “outsiders” by the local ethno-religious majority. They are part of a larger ethno-nationalist movement that aims to reclaim “indigenous” land from so-called illegal “occupiers” or “settlers”.
This is a longstanding idea that also features prominently in the state’s core policy literature, such as in the Brahma Committee report of 2017 and a new land policy approved in 2019.
However, even in Assam, the state government has begun to deploy punitive demolitions à la Israel. Last month, local authorities in the state’s Nagaon district bulldozed several houses of individuals accused of torching a police station following the alleged custodial death of a fish trader named Safikul Islam.
Thus, the emerging trend of punitive demolitions is not quite a Hindi heartland policy, but one that is being systematically adopted by BJP-led state governments. The idea seems to be to establish a certain executive precedent by repeated practice.
It is a fact that India and Israel have moved closer under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This resurgent intimacy is as much about two congruent ethno-racial ideologies – Hindutva and Zionism – flirting with each other as about one militaristic nation-state relying on another to build capacity.
It is not surprising that Modi’s India is starting to look more and more like Israel with each passing day. The real tragedy, however, is that a significant chunk of the majority in India is fine – delighted, rather – about this frightening metamorphosis. They want to embrace the bulldozer as a national leitmotif.
But, as the plight of millions of Palestinians confined in Gaza and the West Bank show, this is a transformation that can only end in a protracted human tragedy and collective schadenfreude.
Angshuman Choudhury is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
o o
Prayagraj demolition: Records show wife of activist is owner, paid water bill & tax
The notice, with the house number listed, was not addressed to Parveen Fatima but to her husband Mohammad Javed who was arrested on charges of allegedly instigating violent protests against derogatory remarks targeting the Prophet.
Written by Manish Sahu | Prayagraj |
Updated: June 14, 2022
o o
Demolition Drive
After violence over Prophet remarks, bulldozers raze properties of accused in Kanpur and Saharanpur
Clashes broke out in Uttar Pradesh on June 3 and June 10.
Scroll Staff
o o
’Our Life Was Put On Display During the Demolition’: Afreen Fatima’s Sister
by Fatima Khan
Published: 14 Jun 2022
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/sumaiya-afreen-fatima-demolition-interview-prayagraj
o o
Indians are expressing shock at news channel glee over demolition of Muslim activist’s house
Rather than question how a person was being punished so severely before being found guilty, news channels on Sunday cheered on the demolition.
Scroll Staff
o o
Crushing Claws: Bulldozer Is A Kangaroo Court, A Modern Version Of Guillotine
by Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Updated: 13 Jun 2022
Bulldozer is now being deployed to construct the perception of a tough leader, an urban legend, which gets intensified with monikers like Bulldozer Baba and Bulldozer Mama. It subverts principles of justice and philosophy of jurisprudence. It holds no negotiation or conversation with those it believes are its adversaries; it razes them to the dust.
