Those who went further and said that under the rule of ‘Bulldozer Baba’, criminals and mafioso have been controlled in the state of Uttar Pradesh should be more ashamed.
Nov 17, 2024 13:56 IST First published on: Nov 17, 2024 at 07:02 IST
This week, I write with a mixture of hope and despair. When I heard the Supreme Court say that ‘bulldozer justice’ was a violation of the rule of law and contrary to the rules of natural justice, it warmed my heart. It made me hopeful that the judiciary will continue to show the courage to put the executive in its place by reminding it that the work of the judiciary can be done by the courts alone. It cannot be usurped by officials or politicians.
This has happened enough times in these past years to appear like a concerted attempt to impose the law of the jungle above the rule of law. Democracy is founded on the rule of law, and it is sad that we in the media have been too cowardly to say this as often as it should have been said. When the Supreme Court pronounced its judgment on ‘bulldozer justice’ last week, there were far too many TV debates in which famous anchors asked whether there was not some justification for bulldozer justice since real justice took so long. Those who asked this question should be ashamed. Those who went further and said that under the rule of ‘Bulldozer Baba’, criminals and mafioso have been controlled in the state of Uttar Pradesh should be more ashamed.
Yogi Adityanath began using bulldozers to demolish the homes of rioters when Muslims took to the streets to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act. Since the rioters in this instance were mostly Muslims, not enough attention was paid to what was done. It was when bulldozers always seemed to demolish only the houses of Muslims that the truth began to be revealed. After communal violence in Madhya Pradesh, the state Home Minister did us a huge favour by announcing that those who threw stones on Hindu religious processions would have their homes reduced to stones. It is the only time a senior political leader has gone on record to admit that bulldozers were being used to deliver rough justice. It would have been better if the Supreme Court had also ruled that the victims of bulldozer justice should be compensated for the loss of their homes, but at least it has ruled that this should happen in the future.
Now let me explain why the hope that the Supreme Court awakened in my heart has become infused with despair. I have been in Maharashtra for most of the duration of the election campaign that ends next week and have found myself deeply disturbed by the speeches made by the BJP’s most important leaders. The doublespeak they have used to stir up communal and caste tensions has been so extraordinary that to call it Orwellian is too small a charge.
The Prime Minister has said ‘Ek hain to safe hain’ so many times during this campaign that it has become the leitmotif of his campaigning. He has done this without explaining who he is trying to keep us safe from while charging the Congress Party with sowing division to create vote banks. Doublespeak? His comrade Yogi Adityanath has been more honest. He began the process of communalizing the campaign with his own slogan. ‘Batenge to Katenge’ he said smilingly and explained exactly what he meant. It was Hindus that must stay together, or they would be cut down just like what is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh. When Modi came up with his ‘safe’ slogan, Yogi tagged this new slogan onto his own. The message could not be clearer, but in this time, when doublespeak has become so common, both voters and us watchdogs in the media have remained mostly silent.
If anyone doubts that the BJP has given up on ‘parivartan’ and ‘vikas’ for raw Hindutva, it became clear in the Home Minister’s speeches in Jharkhand last week. They were less election speeches than a relentless rant against ‘infiltrators’ from Bangladesh. He once called them termites. They were coming to Jharkhand, he said, and taking as their second and third wives ‘innocent’ Adivasi girls and then taking over their lands and properties. Had he thought more carefully about what he said he may have noticed that if there is mass infiltration across our borders, then he is directly responsible. Why has he not stopped it?
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It is not Bangladeshi infiltrators that the BJP would like voters to think of as the enemy, but Indian Muslims. Perhaps they know that at election time, creating imaginary enemies and spreading hatred works much better than talking about ‘parivartan’ and ‘vikas’, as the Prime Minister once did. But is winning elections so important that it is worth damaging the fabric of Indian society? Already, so much damage has been done that it has become normal for educated Indians to sit in their drawing rooms and talk openly about how they hate Muslims. It is hard to watch TV debates these days without hearing BJP spokespersons blaming Muslims for all India’s problems and all the problems in the world.
What happens in the rest of the world will be dealt with by other leaders. What worries me is that our ruling party’s tallest leaders seem to have forgotten that by creating religious disharmony they are ensuring that we never discuss real problems. The evil smog that drapes Delhi is one of them. The poisonous foam in the Yamuna is another. And this is just the short list.
