Bulldozing the Constitution!
Naveen Tewari and Sandeep Pandey
A recent full front page of the advertisement by a Bhartiya Janata Party government declares, ‘House is not just a word. It is a place where power to dream comes and aspirations are fulfilled. Home is much about dignity and security than it is about shelter.’ It further goes on to quote Narendra Modi, ‘It is my dream that every Indian has a pucca house by 2022.’ The occasion was dedication of houses built by a private builder Balaji to the poor. Having witnessed over the past few days the now iconic picture of a bulldozer running down the Prayagraj house of parents of female Muslim student and activist Afreen Fatima, who participated in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens protests, one is almost tempted to look for a fine print at the bottom of the page to the effect that the promise of house is subject to the condition that one doesn’t participate in any anti-government protest otherwise there is a danger of bulldozers coming over. A house built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by Hasina Fakhroo was demolished by administration following clashes during a Ram Navami procession in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh in April earlier this year.
Riot police and paramilitary forces are deployed by all governments to control mob violence. These forces use all kinds of weapons and deterrents to enforce law and order. The hauling up and arrest of culprits inciting violence or leading mobs to challenge the authority of the state is a follow up action which ends in trials and sentencing of the guilty. The state of Uttar Pradesh has found a new weapon to deal with the violators who pose a challenge to the authority of the state namely, the Bulldozer! Yogi Adityanath alone knows from whose book of criminal jurisprudence this leaf has been taken out. At least it is difficult to find an example anywhere in the world barring the sole exception of Israel where the government is in constant conflict with the Palestinian population. The Palestinian land is forcibly taken over to build Jewish settlements and Palestinians are subjected to brutal repression when they resist.
The law in India is not based on the whims and impulses of any leader. It is a strictly codified framework with inflexible procedures and defined limits to its application. Rule of law is not the writ or diktat of a ruler but it is based on the Constitution and the laws that are framed by the legislature are within the structure of the Constitution.
Even the most archaic laws like the Sharia have definite punishment for every particular crime. Chopping of hands and beheading may appear to be repulsive and uncivilised to us but they are based on some penal code. Even the Taliban Government would not go beyond the scope of Sharia to punish the guilty by boiling them in water or chopping them piece by piece or sawing them vertically!
Here in India, in full view of the whole nation including the Supreme Court and High Courts, a Chief Minister is setting an example of how to be a law unto himself! We are shocked by the absence of any reaction to this outrageous and audacious act by the media, intellectuals and activists who are perhaps keeping quiet out of fear of the same bulldozers knocking on their doors. It is further appalling that the spineless judges, who sit on the benches of constitutional courts flaunting their unlimited powers and authority in front of a common citizen litigant, lose their hammer and tongue at a ghastly manifestation of mockery of justice in full public view.
Where is the civil society in this country? Is there any? Is there any civilised society at all? What kind of people can watch this naked dance of sham democracy which is more of an oppressive dictatorship rather than anything else? India is not Israel and Muslims living here are not Palestinians (though there is no justification even for the Israeli government’s inhuman actions). Muslims are our own countrymen living under the same Constitution which treats every person (not merely citizens) equal before law.
If a Muslim has built a house illegally it does not mean that it can be demolished without due legal process while the Hindus constructing multi-storied buildings and colonies, in violation of the law, will enjoy immunity.
It is not that bulldozers were not used earlier to demolish houses or kiosks of street vendors. In fact, quite frequently administrations of governments all over the country have demolished settlements of poor, mostly migrants from rural areas or other states, who come to cities in search of livelihood and set up their jhuggis or kiosks on some government land. Recently hundreds of families have been uprooted in Ahmedabad city who were living for more than a couple of decades next to Railway tracks. In these instances as well the Constitution and Court directives are violated but the governments justify it on some grounds. What is new is selective political targeting now, especially by the BJP governments.
The government of Uttar Pradesh is writing a novel book on crime and punishment. But even this book will not be the final code because once we go on this path of degeneration. Every other ruler who comes to rule will enjoy the privilege of acting upon his own whims and fancies. Yogi Adityanath should just remember the day when he had wept in the Parliament feeling his life under threat merely because the then district administration of Gorakhpur had arrested him for a brief period. He is doing worse things to people.
The U.P. Government has promulgated a law ‘Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property Act, 2020’ which aims to recover the damages to any property during any agitation from the accused persons. A Claims Tribunal will determine the recovery amount and its decision cannot be challenged in any court. Moreover, the burden of proof lies on the accused to prove himself/herself innocent. This is another example of high handed manner in which the Yogi government has been treating dissenters.
A question that we would like to pose is if demolishing anybody’s house is proved to be illegal by a court later, shouldn’t the officials who ordered the demolition in first place not be subjected to a law similar to the abovementioned one. If citizens can be held accountable for damage to property, why should not the officials be?
[Naveen Tewari is entrepreneur-activist and Sandeep Pandey is General Secretary of Socialist Party (India).]
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Meanwhile, 90 retired senior civil servants has asked Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana to intervene and put an end to the idea of ‘bulldozer justice’, saying it is likely to lead to the collapse of Constitutional Governance.
The full statement is reproduced below.
Letter to Chief Justice of India, 20 June 2022
To
The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India,
Supreme Court of India, New Delhi
Dear Chief Justice of India,
We, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group comprising former civil servants, have read the appeal sent to you on June 14, 2022 by a select group of former judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts and leading advocates, requesting you to take suo-motu cognizance of the recent acts in Uttar Pradesh of illegal detention, bulldozing of residences and police violence on protesters and those in police custody following protests against certain objectionable remarks made by BJP spokespersons.
We fully support this plea and urge your immediate intervention. We believe that unless the judiciary at the highest level steps in to intervene, swiftly, firmly and decisively, the entire edifice of constitutional governance that has been so carefully and meticulously constructed over the last seventy two years, is likely to collapse.
We are aware that since this appeal for suo-motu cognizance of the shocking incidents in Uttar Pradesh was made to you, a writ petition against the demolition of allegedly unauthorized constructions has been filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind before the bench of Justices Bopanna and Vikram Nath and that after the preliminary hearing, the response of the State Government has been sought and a hearing will take place next week. While the legality or otherwise of the arbitrary, motivated and wanton destruction of the properties of alleged protesters, all of whom belong to the minority community, is being considered by this bench, and hopefully this will prevent further precipitate and highhanded action by the State Government as far as demolitions are concerned, we believe that the issues raised by former judges and other lawyers are much wider and relate to the complete subversion of state policy for vicious, ideological ends.
The demolition drive and the abuse of municipal and civic laws for political ends is just one element of a larger policy for converting the administrative and police apparatus into an instrument of brutal majoritarian repression. There are explicit directions to invoke the National Security Act 1980 and the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act 1986, to brutally quell any protest. The policy has the sanction of the highest levels of the Government and while local level officials and police personnel are certainly answerable for arbitrary use of power, the real culpability lies at the highest levels of the political executive. It is this corruption of the edifice of constitutional governance which requires the Supreme Court to step in and stem the rot.
As former civil servants who have spent several decades in the service of the Constitution, we are particularly alarmed that the threat we currently face is completely unprecedented. It is no longer just a case of ‘excesses’ of the police and the administration at the local level which can be brought under check by higher levels of administration and political authority, it is the fact that the very idea of the Rule of Law, of ‘due process’, of being treated as ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is being turned upside down. What we have seen in Prayagraj, in Kanpur, in Saharanpur and many other towns which have a sizeable Muslim population, follows a pattern and is politically directed. What is even more alarming is that the idea of ‘bulldozer justice’, of inflicting brutal punishment on citizens who dare to protest lawfully or criticize the Government or express dissent by using ostensibly legal instruments, is now becoming the norm rather than the exception across many Indian States. There is a sense of impunity and the arrogance of majoritarian power which seems to be driving this disregard for constitutional values and principles.
We believe that the immediacy of the threat is critical and we join hands with the former judges and the advocates who have petitioned you, in urging you to take cognizance of the situation and intervene appropriately.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Yours faithfully,
Constitutional Conduct Group (90 signatories, as below)
(Full list of signatories available on The Citizen website. Courtesy: thecitizen.in.)
