Bulldozer raj. If we are to choose one metaphor to illustrate the terror, injustice, impunity and arrogance that have emerged as the hallmarks of BJP rule in the Modi era, the bulldozer symbolises them all. The use of the bulldozer as a tool of 'governance' began in Uttar Pradesh under Yogi Adityanath's stewardship and today other BJP-ruled states, Madhya Pradesh in particular, have also adopted this model with great alacrity. Angered by its loss of majority in the 2024 elections, frustrated and angry BJP governments appear to have actually unleashed a campaign of bulldozer revenge.
On 15 June, eleven homes belonging to Muslims were demolished in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla district with police claiming to have found beef in their refrigerators. Four days later, the Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh carried out a massive eviction drive in the Akbarnagar area of Lucknow. As many as 1,169 houses and 101 commercial establishments were demolished, all in the name of promoting riverfront tourism. And on August 22, in Chhatarpur of Madhya Pradesh the newly built house of Congress leader Haji Shehzad Ali was destroyed accusing him of instigating a Muslim crowd against the local police.
The incidence of bulldozing of houses and shops, belonging mostly to Muslims, Dalits and slum dwellers, has grown rapidly in recent years. According to figures collated by the Housing and Land Rights Network, a staggering 1,53,820 demolitions have taken place in 2022 and 2023 alone, rendering 7,38,438 people homeless. The number of such demolition victims rose drastically from 1,07,625 in 2019 to 5,15,752 in 2023. An Amnesty International report noted 128 'punitive demolitions' in Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi just between April and June 2022. Even as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were underway, some six hundred makeshift houses were demolished in a Dalit slum called Jai Bhim Nagar in Powai of Mumbai, rendering 3,500 people homeless. The official excuse offered in almost all these cases has been demolition of encroachments, but the dominant narrative is invariably that of delivery of 'bulldozer justice'.
While the ubiquitous JCB machines, the most visible brand of bulldozers used in the operations targeting predominantly Muslim homes and shops, have thus emerged as the most telling symbol of extra-judicial terror in Modi's India, the judiciary has been conspicuously silent on this bulldozing of justice. But for occasional temporary stay orders, the courts have been hesitant to pass orders against this power-drunk bulldozer mode of governance and now much celebrated model of delivery of instant justice. Some BJP leaders have the temerity to celebrate the JCB brand as 'jihadi control board' and even non-BJP leaders start indulging in competitive invoking of bulldozers, much like the competitive clamour for encounter killings and hangings to pacify mass outrage against crimes. The studied silence of the custodians of the constitutional rule of law only emboldens the perpetrators of this systematic travesty of law and justice.
The 2024 mandate could not oust the fascist Modi regime from power, but it has clearly succeeded in strengthening the opposition in the parliamentary arena and arming the common people with much-needed hope and courage in the battle for democracy. We have seen the impact of the mandate in recent parliamentary proceedings when the controversial Waqf Board bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, the draconian broadcast bill to muzzle the freedom of alternative media was shelved and a circular regarding lateral entry recruitment in union bureaucracy was withdrawn. We also see signs of an upswing in mass protests in various states against heinous crimes and demanding due rights of the people. The same spirit must now be upheld to put a stop to bulldozer raj.
Bulldozers can never be a weapon of justice, they are clearly tools of terror and destruction, symbolizing a rampaging state trampling upon every notion of democracy and rule of law. Across India where the poor are facing eviction as land, minerals, forests and riverbeds are being snatched from the people for accumulation of profits, bulldozers are the vehicles of corporate takeover. And for the Muslim community in India, the rampaging bulldozers are nothing but tools of targeted terror and fascist aggression that seek to coerce India's biggest religious minority into silent submission as the fascists rob an entire community of its constitutional rights. Democratic India must summon all its strength to stop the marauding bulldozer and defend the rights and dignity of every marginalised group.
