Azad Essa / Edison, New Jersey
The mayor of a New Jersey town has denounced the inclusion of a bulldozer at last weekend’s Indian Independence Day rally saying it was “unacceptable” and called for an apology from the group that organised the parade in his town.
Addressing several concerned residents and activists in a meeting on Friday, Samip Joshi said he understood that the inclusion of the bulldozer at the parade was a symbol of division and called for an apology from the Indian Business Association, which had organised the rally.
“I understand a bulldozer is a symbol of division and is absolutely unacceptable,” Joshi told the delegation made up of local residents and activists from the Indian American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations and Hindus for Human Rights. “There is no place for that in Edison Township,” Joshi added.
“I would like to see an apology from the Indian Business Association,” Joshi said.
Over the past few years, bulldozers have become a symbol of hate in India, in a disturbing trend where authorities use excavators to demolish the homes of Muslim activists under the pretext of the structures being illegal.
This story was originally published in middleeasteye.net . Read the full story here