Recently, the latest occurrence of what is becoming a disturbing trend has been on the airwaves and demanding the attention of the national audience. On December 20th last year, the Uttarakhand High Court ordered for the removal of around 5000 settlements in Banbhoolpura, which led to the issuing of a public notice on 30th December, asking residents to vacate the region within a week. This has caused a massive uproar amongst the local population, as the initially planned eviction would've led to the demolition of houses, schools, mosques, temples and other places of note, prompting the residents to rise in protest.
(Source: Indian Express)
A new wrinkle in the already volatile socio-political fabric of the nation, the protests are a result of a lengthy legal dispute over the ownership rights of the land, which houses a predominantly proletarian Muslim population—an aspect which unsurprisingly has raised questions regarding whether this dispute has communally disharmonious motives, with parallels being drawn with respect to the Shaheen Bagh protests in 2020.
The issue of the alleged encroachment of the Banbhoolpura land can be traced back to 2007, when the NER claimed 29 acres of land near the Haldwani railway station. The issue then subsided and no further demolition was carried out, until 2013, when the issue resurfaced after one Ravi Shankar Joshi filed a public interest litigation in the high court. This led to the NER being summoned to court, and the claim of 29 acres of railway land was made yet again.
(Source: Khabar Uttarakhand News)
Accordingly, the residents made their stance and dismay very clear, as Mohammed Akhlaq expressed, “This area has homes, temples and mosques, community centres and water tanks,”. “Some of us have ownership papers. Our appeals are pending in the lower courts. But despite all this, the high court made such a big decision without giving us the space to provide facts.”
The representative of Banbhoolpura's opposition came in the form of a petition, was scheduled to be heard on January 5th with several topics and points of note. It states how the land that the so called "encroachers" inhabit, is actually Nazul, which refers to non-agricultural land that is owned by the government which can be leased to families and in some cases, even given as freehold.
Moreover, the applicants state:
That the railway has no evidence to claim this land as its own and the parties have not substantiated their claims of ownership, and
Over a thousand appeals by residents have been pending before the district courts pertaining to individual cases of land ownership being contested under the ambit of the Public Premises Act, 1971, in relation to the case.
The locals didn't take long to come up with a theory of why the events unfolded like they did, and understood that this was a tactic to modify the demographic in such a way that it benefits the ruling BJP government aspirations. It has been long denied considerable electoral success due to not capturing the trust and belief of the working-class Muslim population. Thus, by clamping down and driving out those very people, BJP, according to the characters in play, can finally get good votes from the region in question. Subsequently, the Congress party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen have slammed the state government and demanded a stay on the eviction drive.
(Source: Jagran.com)
This recurring pattern is bound to induce anxiety in the Indian public, as governments at various levels are now getting more and more accustomed to using the supposed last resort solution as a knee-jerk, almost instinctual action. A puzzling juxtaposition is revealed where demolition should only be implied after considerable collection of evidence and hearings taking place, both of which were quite compromised and scattered. One must note that demolition is an irreversible activity, and only works to portray the government as heartless and lacking empathy. It’s bringing not only tangible destruction, but also great communal and socio-economic instability, as mostly lower-middle class, working people are being targeted. The process is of greatly arbitrary and insensitive nature, as seen in the recent Jahangirpuri demolition. It’s hard to not place these events in a wider communal context, as marginalised communities, often immigrants, find themselves at the centre of this unique state violence.
SOURCES:
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/banbhoolpura-residents-celebrate-sc-haldwani-eviction-sweets-8363045/
https://thewire.in/rights/residents-eviction-haldwani-political-motivation
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/haldwani-protest-supreme-court-to-hear-petition-against-planned-eviction-101672883669367.html
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/delhi-bulldozer-bjp-aap-7916130/
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