The BJP-controlled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) Tuesday wrote to the North West DCP demanding security for an anti-encroachment drive on 20 and 21 April in Jahangirpuri which was rocked by violence during Ram Navami rallies by Hindutva groups.
This comes a week after authorities in at least two BJP governing states Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh demolished dozens of homes and shops belonging to Muslims who were arbitrarily arrested or booked in the cases related to anti-Muslim violence during the Ram Navami festival.
In the letter, the Assistant Commissioner, Civil Lines Zone of North MCD has requested 400 police personnel, “including lady police/outer force for maintaining law and order during the encroachment removal action on April 20 and 21.”
Permission was also sought for Tuesday but the drive could not be carried out since police did not make personnel available, Indian Express quotes North MCD Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh as saying.
He said they are hopeful of getting police support on Wednesday.
The letter was sent hours after Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta wrote to the North MCD Mayor, demanding identification and demolition of “illegal encroachment” and construction by those arrested in the Jahangirpuri violence.
BJP chief said: “These anti-social elements and rioters have the support of local AAP MLA and councillor and as a result these people have done large-scale encroachment. Therefore, illegal encroachment done by these rioters should be identified and there should be bulldozers run over it.”
Taking to Twitter, AIMIM supremo and MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that in the name of encroachment it’s going to destroy homes in Delhi like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
BJP has declared war against the poorest, he said.
Owaisi also demanded a clarification of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s “dubious role” in the drive of Delhi MCD.
“Is his govt’s PWD part of this “demolition drive”? Did people of Jahingirpuri vote for him for such betrayals and cowardice?! His frequent refrain “police is not in our control” won’t work here,” Owaisi said.
Human rights groups, Muslim bodies, and opposition party leaders have been calling upon the BJP governments to stop the demolition of homes and shops belonging to Muslims in violence-hit regions.
Amnesty International India Chair Aakar Patel said that the demolition of private property of people suspected of rioting allegedly without the due process was “a major blow to the rule of law.”
The government should run a bulldozer over problems of the people such as inflation and unemployment but the BJP’s bulldozer is carrying “hatred and terror”, Congress former chief Rahul Gandhi said.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has filed a plea in the Supreme Court of India, urging its intervention as properties of Muslims who were framed in the violence cases are bulldozed by the authorities in states governed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the dangerous politics of bulldozers that have been started to destroy minorities, especially Muslims under the guise of crime prevention in BJP-ruled states,” JUH president, Arshad Madani, tweeted on Sunday.
 Tuesday wrote to the North West DCP demanding security for an anti-encroachment drive in Jahangirpuri){kind=link}