The Supreme Court's stay of further demolition in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area, in the name of clearing unauthorised constructions, may have brought a reprieve to the residents for now, but the judiciary may not be the final arbiter to the larger, unasked questions behind what seems to be a motivated and calculated action aimed at silencing a section of the population more than already. https://www.rediff.com/news/column/n-sathiya-moorthy-why-bulldozer-politics-wont-work/20220425.htm
How the polity and the people alike move from here on such matters, and not stopping with Delhi, would decide the future design and texture of the national fabric, which has begun fraying at the ends since the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014.
It is nobody's case that unauthorised structures should not be removed.
But the timing reads extremely suspicious in the aftermath of the preceding event as the locality had witnessed avoidable communal clashes only days earlier.
Also, as the Supreme Court quizzed the attorney general, whether bulldozers had to be used to remove such illegal constructions/encroachments.
The unasked question at this stage is if such unauthorised structures did not exist in other parts of the municipal corporation area, and why Jahangirpuri alone was chosen for the 'demolition treatment'.
by N Sathiya Moorthy
20/04/2022