Nowadays, politics in the form of Bulldozers are being used all across the country i.e., The Problem With Bulldozer Justice. It started in the UP elections with the slogans for Bulldozer Baba. There was a song on it too. “Long live Bulldozer Baba.” Next, in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government put up hoardings on the road promoting Bulldozer Mama. And with time, after Bulldozer Baba and Bulldozer Mama, we witnessed Bulldozer Justice.
The Problem With Bulldozer Justice
While being interviewed by Barkha Dutt, Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra said, “When dealing with hooligans, I believe, they should get what they deserve. These people are harming society. They make the lives of good people difficult. And we should be seen taking immediate action against the rioters.” After Madhya Pradesh’s Bulldozer Justice, the Bulldozers reached Delhi’s Jahangiripuri.
The timing was suspiciously the same. The bulldozers reached the place soon after a communal riot. They demolished the homes and shops of some people. Our story does not end here. After this, the bulldozers are seen in Rajasthan’s Alwar. There, they demolish a temple. Before this, a journalist named Aman had started chipping away at the peace.
He went on the TV to claim that the Alwar demolition was a retaliation against the Jahangiripuri incident. Later we found out that, the place that was bulldozed in Rajasthan, had been bulldozed before the Jahangiripuri incident. It happened around April 17th or 18th. The second thing we found out was that Congress is the incumbent government in Rajasthan, but in this area of Rajgad, the municipal department is under BJP’s control.
In the same way, Delhi is governed by the AAP but Delhi’s MCD is under BJP’s control. According to Dainik Bhaskar’s report, the demolition of the temple was actually being planned for the last 7 months, by the Municipality Board.
The Problem With Bulldozer Justice
Well, let us not get individual incidents, come, let us understand the meaning of this Bulldozer Politics. What are the Consequences? How does it affect the law and order in the country? And how does it affect the lives of common people? And why do some people love bulldozer politics? Taking it at the face value, people who are rioting and pelting stones, the government identifies them, and instantly sends bulldozers to their homes to demolish their homes and shops.
Broadly speaking, this is what most people think Bulldozer Politics is. Some people claim that there’s one other thing that government looks for. The government checks whether the houses are built illegally. Whether there is any illegal encroachment. If there is, that makes it 2 conditions.
One: being a stone pelter.
Second: illegal encroachment.
Only then will bulldozers be sent to your house. That is the Bulldozer Justice. Irrespective of what the reasons are, it basically means that neither will there be any action by the police nor by the courts. The government will decide of its own volition, to bulldoze bouses. This is the Bulldozer Justice. But is it truly justice?
In my opinion, this can not be called justice. It is called revenge. These are widely different words. Justice and Revenge. It may seem that the two mean the same thing. But the more you think about these two words, the more will you understand that actually, they are vastly different with different meanings. And often, they contradict each other.
Revenge is an emotional response. The one trying to take revenge aims at taking revenge as soon as possible. On the other hand, Justice is a rational response. A logical decision after much deliberations. Often, it takes a significant amount of time. Revenge brings the victim and perpetrator on the same level. The one in the wrong and the one wronged, after the revenge both end up feeling the same way. Think about it.
If a family member gets murdered, and you go out to look for the murderer, and kill the murderer, the number of murderers in society doesn’t change. There is a famous Batman dialogue regarding this, ‘If you kill a killer… the number of killers in the world remains the same. Revenge is an endless cycle. It has no end. On the other hand, justice provides closure. It brings about peace in society.
This is the reason why Mahatma Gandhi had said, “An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” The need for revenge will leave the whole world blind. This is not how the justice system works. Had the country’s justice system run on revenge, then for every murder in the country, the murderer should have been hanged to death. But that is not how it works. Because in all the Constitutions written in the world, the authors of the Constitution knew about this. Revenge can not bring long-lasting peace to society.
For every crime in the country, we need to understand the motives, reasons, and consequences, If we truly wish to bring peace to the country. You will remember the horrifying 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, was a brave NSG Commander who was martyred in action during these attacks.
Terrorist Ajmal Kasab was placed on trial and finally, in November 2012, he was hanged to death. When this happened, some people celebrated. But do you know what Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s father’s reaction is? He said that it was foolishness to hang Kasab and was not a cause for celebration. Hanging Kasab was a legal necessity. The judiciary had decided to do this so that there could be peace in society. That is why he asked everyone to show restraint, rather than celebrate.
Can you imagine a person who lost his young son in a terrorist attack, knowing and telling people that the terrorist being hanged to death is not cause for celebration? If we fast forward to 10 years later, today, in 2022 when people’s houses were bulldozed in Jahangiripuri, and shops were demolished, Were these shops legal or illegal? Was the Constitution followed while bulldozing shops? Was the proper system followed or not? Why had Supreme Court ordered this bulldozer to stop? These questions will be analyzed later.
First thing, If Supreme Court had not ordered to stop the bulldozer, and suppose that the bulldozing was completely legal and constitutional. Even so, do you not have any sympathy for the children whose shops were bulldozed? Do we not have the merest humanity to not celebrate this? Some people were seen celebrating. They were ecstatic. They were celebrating the fact the people lost their homes and shops.
Navika Kumar, Editor-in-Chief of times now Media House, tweeted by laughing about the bulldozing. Some people lost their homes, and shops, but it is a laughing matter for her. Have some people become so bloodthirsty? Kasab was a terrorist. But what here are some children who are suffering because of bulldozing. Now friends, let us come to the actual facts.
The thing is the justice meted out by the judiciary, is often time-consuming but just. It is certain about its target. On the other hand, revenge is taken instantly. Haste makes waste. Being driven by emotions and anger, revenge keeps missing its target. It ends up hurting the innocents. The authorities claim to have followed the due process while bulldozing and that only illegal encroachments have been bulldozed.
Aaj Tak’s reporter Anjana Om Kashyap, repeated the claims by the authorities saying, “Whether it is a mosque or a juice corner, everything that is illegal will be demolished.” But should a journalist merely repeat what the authorities say, or should they actually find out, whether the statements are true or not? Did she try to find out if the demolished juice stalls were illegal?
The Problem With Bulldozer Justice
The Problem With Bulldozer Justice- some incidents of The Problem With Bulldozer Justice
When Lallantop’s journalist Siddharth Mohan went to verify this claim, he talked to Ganesh Kumar Gupta who was an owner of juice corner whose shop was demolished. Ganesh showed him the allotment letter for his shop issued in 1978. It was clearly written that he had bought the shop from the original owner. He even showed the letter from DDA which contained details on the shifting of property. He showed him the rent slips and all relevant documents. But to what end? His shop had been bulldozed.
Then comes Raman Jha’s story. Owner of a Paan stall that was bulldozed. He said that he was running the stall since 1985. He even showed documents issued by the MCD. But when his stall was razed to the ground he was not given any notice. No prior information. On the morning of the incident, he asked the policemen thrice, if he should remove his stall from where it was parked. The police told him that her need not remove it and then came the bulldozer which razed it. The stall from where Raman earned his livelihood and ran his household.
Supreme Court had directed the residents of Jahangirpuri to file an affidavit to Supreme Court saying that they were not given any prior notice. And here, we should not forget that Supreme Court had actually ordered this demolition to be stopped. But the bulldozer kept at it for hours after the order.
What is this Bulldozer revenge model that ran over Justice? Supreme Court’s order w
as also violated. On social media and What’s app forwards, the narrative being set shows that only Muslims were targeted. BJP MPs went around giving statements that JCB stands for Jihad Control Board.
There is no doubt that we’re trying to show that only Muslims were being targeted in these bulldozer drives. But in the court, the government’s lawyer, Tushar Mehta said that there was no communal take on the demolitions. He told the court that in the demolitions in Madhya Pradesh 88 houses belonged to Hindus and 26 to Muslims. Whether Hindu or Muslim, one thing that I can say for sure is that among the people who had to bear the brunt of the bulldozers rich people account for 0% of them. And the poor people account for 100% of them.
On this WhatsApp forward and news channels, we get to hear “we the Hindus and them the Muslims” or “we the Muslims and them the Hindus”. but think about it, Hindu Goutam Adani, Hindu Mukesh Ambani, Hindu Amit Shah, and Hindu Akshay Kumar, what do they have in common with Goutam Gupta and Raman Jha, the ill-fated owners of the demolished shops.
For argument’s sake, they too are Hindus, but do they eat the same kind of food? Do they wear the same clothes? Do they enjoy the same status in society? Do they earn the same? Do they live in the same houses? or is their locality, their neighborhood the same? Are their living conditions the same? The cleanliness around them, the purity of the water they drink, the schools their children attend, There’s nothing common in these Hindus. Hindu Ganesh Kumar Gupta and Hindu Raman Jha, have nothing in common with these Hindu Amit Shah and Hindu Akshay Kumar. They merely belong to the same religion.
Similarly, Muslim Shah Rukh Khan, Muslim Salman Khurshid, and Muslim Rubika Liaquat, What do they have in common with the poor Muslims whose homes were demolished? Their clothes, income, business, and the neighborhood around them, there is nothing in common. Except for the one God they believe in. On the other hand, Hindu Akshay Kumar and Muslim Salman Khan have a lot in common. But a poor Hindu and a poor Muslim living in Jahangiripuri have a lot in common.
Where they live, the clothes they wear, their incomes, their business, the development around them, and the atrocities they would have to face. With the bulldozers running over them, they will have to get through everything together. This is something that people need to realize.
The Problem With Bulldozer Justice
The question here is that now that you have understood the true intention behind Bulldozer politics, the question is, why do some people support this form of politics? There are three main reasons behind this.
Firstly Communal hatred- Some people hate people from other religions so much that they forget humanity. They start celebrating atrocities against others. Especially when they think only one community is being targeted by the authorities. These people are so brainwashed that they forget the conditions they are living in, an average Hindu middle-class man and an average Muslim middle-class man, are suffering through the same situations. Inflation, rising prices of petrol, and diesel, CNG, LPG, rising prices of foodstuffs, falling FD rates and PF rates, rising unemployment. Even so, they are so bloodthirsty that they get sadistic pleasure when they see others being tormented. But even so, I would not call this the main reason.
The second reason is more prevalent. Our slow judicial system. Police and courts have often delayed justice. Nirbhaya’s case had moved the country, it had taken 7 years to get justice in that. Many people are so fed up with this justice system, and look for ‘instant justice”. On top of it, they are also influenced by films that promote vigilante behavior. The problem is that these people need to understand the instant justice that they hail, is actually revenge. And there is a stark difference between revenge and justice. True peace in society can be ushered in through the judiciary system only. If we start idealizing Bulldozer politics, if we start running after revenge, there will be an uprise of hatred, anger, and gangs in the country. The crime rate increases with this, rather than decreasing.
The third reason is some people love the strongmen image. People like politicians that seem strong. These people often secretly admire dictators. The image of the Bulldozer is an extension of the strongmen’s image. So what is the solution? The solution is to bring about improvements in our judicial system. The number of policemen needs to be increased. The police should be given better training. A need for police reforms, and higher salaries for policemen. Filing the vacancies of hudges. And increasing the number of judges and courts in the country. And always remember, looking for instant justice, can imprison the wrong people and hurt the innocent.
These are incidents and some of The Problem With Bulldozer Justice and also some solutions for the Problem With Bulldozer Justice
