Khargone/Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Two years after bulldozers rolled into Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone following communal riots on Ram Navami in April 2022 and demolished houses and businesses owned by Muslims who were deemed to be suspects of the violence, Hasina Fakhroo, a widow whose house built under the PM Awas Yojana and was demolished as a part of the “bulldozer justice” action, says that she was keen to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he addressed an election campaign rally in the area on May 7.
“When Modi came here I wanted to go and ask him to give back my house. I wanted to tell him, ‘You had my house demolished, now build my house again and give it to me.’ But my children stopped me from going. All I want is that they should give me my house again,” she told The Wire, sitting outside her tin house in Khargone’s Anand Nagar.
Since the demolition on April 12, 2022, Fakhroo and her family have changed houses four times before moving to the one-room tin house where she now lives with her three sons and a daughter. Tin walls of the house stand on concrete and brick on a small plot that members of the community have collected money and divided among those who were displaced following the demolition drive.
“We don’t even have an electricity connection. One of the neighbours has kindly given us electricity on rent so we have pulled a line from their line to be able to power one bulb and a fan,” said Fakhroo.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
