Friday, 22 April 2022 | Pioneer
Any incident of razing down people’s homes has no place in a mature democracy
Now, BSP supremo Mayawati has become the latest politician to jump on to the Jahangirpuri violence controversy bandwagon. Stirring the getting-murky-by-the-hour pot further, she has said that bulldozers were being run in the northwest Delhi locality under the “guise” of checking illegal construction. Several structures were on Wednesday razed in the Jahangirpuri incident during an ‘anti-encroachment drive’ conducted by the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation amid an unusually heavy deployment (though the local mayor called it “a routine exercise”) of paramilitary and police personnel and the onslaught of the humming bulldozers didn’t stop until the authorities received a ‘written order’ from the Supreme Court in this regard. The facts that obeying the apex court’s order was deferred till the last possible moment and that the civic body is ruled by the BJP have also lent credence to the conspiracy theory that the action was really aimed at acting against and intimidating the accused of communal offences — including violent clashes, stone pelting, arson and firing — during the passage of a Hanuman Mahotsav procession earlier in the same locality.
In fact, directly pointing the finger at the Centre, because law and order isn’t a State subject in the national Capital, Mayawati alleged that using religion as a tool in such exercises can harm mutual harmony and destroy the secular fabric of the country. She also put the ball back into the Centre’s court when she claimed that “anti-national forces” could take advantage of such a situation. Another point to ponder in the case is that with the same set of facts, the Delhi High Court had earlier refused to “interfere in the (demolition) process at this stage”. The moot question that presents itself in the face of this development is: Is Jahangirpuri the only locality in the national Capital that is afflicted by the curse of ‘illegal constructions’? Where is the action against the Government officials whose corrupt practices, or at least turning a blind eye to such illegal developments in good time, led to these constructions coming up? Also, is it not the Government’s duty to take care of all the migrant population — including spaces for them to stay in, taking care of their health care needs and ensuring their safety and wellbeing — that may be descending upon Delhi in the search of employment or for any other valid reason?
