By Harsh Mander
New Delhi: What began as a tool for demolishing criminal strongholds in Uttar Pradesh has evolved under Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister Yogi Adityanath into a template for targeted demolitions, collective punishment of Muslims, and political theatre nationwide.
These demolitions, often defying Supreme Court orders on prior notice and rehabilitation, rapidly spread to BJP-run states, such as Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, Uttarakhand and Gujarat; to Jammu and Kashmir, where the union government dictates many policies; and, in the latest instances, to Congress-run Karnataka.
As columnist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral scholar Fahad Zuberi noted in May 2023, “The state has now manufactured a toolkit—targeted demolitions, forced displacements, and demographic engineering—not just to consolidate political influence and shape electoral outcomes, but to embed a persistent hatred in the public psyche. It is about crafting a collective Hindutva imagination where Muslims are systematically erased.”
Residents in Delhi’s Tughlaqabad slums, facing eviction notices and demolition drives in 2023, asked authorities: “They should inquire who the Muslims are and remove them, why us?” Many were Hindus and long-time BJP supporters.
Sushma Dutt, a local BJP voter, echoed the confusion to The Quint: “We are not Rohingya or Bengali Muslims. The government has issues with them. But why trouble us? If they want to remove Muslims, they should do that. We are Hindus.”
The message: the bulldozer was a weapon, not an impartial instrument of the law.
The UP Template
The template for this weaponisation can be traced to July 2020, during the police operation against UP gangster Vikas Dubey. Dubey blocked police vehicles with a bulldozer before his gang killed eight officers.
In response, Adityanath’s administration demolished Dubey’s sprawling home—using the same bulldozer that blocked the convoy—and broadcast it live on television. The police then shot Dubey in what appeared to be an extrajudicial killing.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
