After the demolition drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area on Wednesday, several Opposition leaders reacted strongly to the move saying the action was selective, malicious and targeted.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the ruling BJP for the demolition drives calling it a state-sponsored targeting of the minorities and the poor.
“This is a demolition of India’s constitutional values. This is state-sponsored targeting of the poor and the minorities. The BJP must bulldoze the hatred in their hearts instead,” Gandhi said in a tweet.
The demolition drive in northwest Delhi was halted after the Supreme Court ordered status quo but not before several shops and structures in the area were razed to ground.
Defending the demolition drive, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra asked what was wrong in the demolition of illegal structures and encroachments. ”The Congress would always criticise us no matter what we do. They stand with anti-national forces. They defended Afzal Guru” he said.
AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi also attacked the BJP for the demolition drive calling it targeted saying that only Muslims were being targeted. He said that the BJP has declared a war against the poorest by destroying homes in Delhi like in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also did not mince words in attacking the BJP’s demolition drive. AAP leader Raghav Chadha alleged that Home Minister Amit Shah was orchestrating riots in the city. He said the bulldozers should be demolishing the BJP headquarters in Delhi and Shah’s residence.
“The BJP is inciting riots and indulging in hooliganism in different parts of the country. They talk about bulldozers today….I suggest that bulldozers should be deployed to raze the Bharatiya Janata Party’s headquarters in Delhi and we can guarantee that riots will stop,” Chadha told a news agency.
“We are witnessing how they are orchestrating riots in Delhi every other day. There were riots in northeast Delhi in 2020; There were riots in Jahangirpuri today. The BJP is behind these riots. The Home Minister is himself orchestrating these riots. If you want to use bulldozers, use them at the Home Minister’s residence. That is what will end riots,” he added.
The AAP leader even hinted at a conspiracy behind riots as he claimed that the BJP in the last eight years resettled ”Bangladeshis and Rohingyas’ across the country which it uses just to orchestrate communal riots.”
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also condemned the demolition drive. In a statement, he said that the BJP has made the bulldozer a symbol of its extra-constitutional might. Muslims, Dalits and backwards are its chosen target. Now even Hindus are falling prey to its frenzy. The BJP is bulldozing the constitution.
It was in the Uttar Pradesh that the Bulldozer was used to demolish structures and Yogi Adityanath earned the name “Bulldozer Baba.”