By Prantik Ali and Shinjinee Majumder
“If SP or Congress come to power, they will send Ram Lalla back to the tent and will run a bulldozer on the temple. Is this what you want to learn from Yogi ji? Take tuitions from Yogi ji where to use the bulldozer and where not to.”
In an election rally at Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, held on May 17, PM Modi indicated the Congress-SP alliance, if voted to power, would send Ram Lalla to the tents and run a bulldozer over the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. In a snide reference to what has come to be known as ‘bulldozer justice’, Modi asked the Opposition to learn from Yogi Adityanath where to use the bulldozer and where not.
‘Bulldozer Justice’ has become a model of retributive violence popularised by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath in which bulldozers are deployed by the authorities to raze down the house of an accused before a case or a dispute reaches a judicial closure. According to an Amnesty International report, “The authorities in Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh claimed that the demolition of Muslim properties was based on violations of land regulations, such as not securing the required permissions from the local municipalities, or operating businesses on government land, and other regulatory infractions. However, there are widespread similar breaches of land regulations by Hindus as well, and the measures these authorities have taken have been directed largely at Muslims and not Hindus.”
Adityanath, popularly hailed as Bulldozer Baba, has repeatedly targeted Muslims while campaigning for the ongoing elections. In one of his speeches, he prided himself on the fact that Muslims offering prayers had vanished from the streets of Uttar Pradesh. On April 21, Adityanath was given a unique guard of honour by a horde of bulldozers when he went to the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh for election campaigning.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
