Bulldoze-police in Uttar Pradesh 'being used' against anyone BJP wants to silence

By Amit Srivastav*
On June 3, 2022, violence erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur and has made headlines ever since with new leads in the case. At the time, it was reported that at least six persons were injured, as protestors from the Muslim community apparently clashed with the police, after BJP member Nupur Sharma had made inflammatory speech against the Prophet.
The next day, the police registered three FIRs against more than a 1,000 unknown persons, out of which 55 people have been named as accused. All of these people are from the Muslim community.
Now, the Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader and 12 others in connection with the Kanpur communal violence. The total number of arrests is now 51.
On June 8, the Delhi police registered two FIR as well. The first includes the names of 8 people, including Naveen Kumar Jindal of BJP, Pooja Shakun of Hindu Mahasabha, etc.
The second names Nupur Sharma of BJP and others for social media posts. Hindutva priest Yati Narsinghanand has also been named by the Police, who was in the news for making hate-speech in Haridwar a few months ago.
The people responsible for the case are all part of the nexus of hatred that is sponsored by the government. A lot of people have a history of making hate-speeches, particularly against Muslims. And most of them are members of some Hindutva organisation.
In the past, there have been literal calls for genocide of the Muslim community. Yet the perpetrators of such speeches roam around freely.
Instead, the BJP government in UP under Ajay Singh Bisht, also known as Yogi Adityanath, has decided to bulldoze the houses of the accused. The bulldoze-police has been used against anyone the BJP wants to silence, and is their tactic of intimidation.

Afreen Fatima

Needless to say, it is highly vengeful and has nothing to do with the constitutional way of dealing with such cases. Bulldozing a house also means everybody who lives in that house will become homeless. It is an attack on the entire family of an accused.
Among the victims of this policy of bullzoding is Afreen Fatima, who is a student activist. She is a student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a former president of the students union of Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University.
She was also active during anti-CAA/NRC protests in 2019-2020 at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, and organised Muslim women and has held protests against bans on hijab as well. Her family was detained without any warrant on June 10, 2022.
This vengeful politics of hatred that the BJP has been practicing must be opposed radically. This is not the sign of a democratic country. These are signs of an authoritarian dictatorship, where anybody even with even suspicions of something will be attacked, and where even their families will be made victims.
All progressive organisations and individuals should come forward against this.
---
*Advocate, President, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO), Delhi

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