The case of the Jahangirpuri demolition drive can be rightly termed a curious case, if only because one of the petitioners, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, whose juice shop was demolished by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), is the best friend of the BJP government at the Centre. Gupta is proof that the Modi Government was being unjustly blamed for targeting only one religious community. Gupta by his very name and religious affiliation made a mockery of the allegation. Whoever thought up the bright idea to make Gupta a party to the case shouldn’t have jumped the gun. Now, ‘Hanuman-bhakt’ Ganesh Kumar Gupta, couldn’t be a better ‘secular’ flag-bearer for the so-called Muslim-baiting Bharatiya Janata Party. Also, now, the top court has told the parties involved to stick to the “status quo” with the warning that they “will take a serious view of all action after the status quo order was passed.”
Delhi’s Jahangirpuri is only the latest playground of the BJP’s bulldozer. An SC bench consisting of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai heard the case. The previous day, seven bulldozers had razed “extensions” made to several structures, including those of a “place of worship” in Jahangirpuri. A few residents of the Muslim-majority locality were also arrested by the Delhi Police for the possession of small arms, loosely termed “kattas” or country-made guns. Meanwhile, it has come to light that one Dileep Saxena’s fruit-juice stall was also destroyed, another example of the BJP’s impartiality. But the BJP bulldozer has an Achilles heel: None of the bulldozers, whether those in Uttar Pradesh or those in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, even the ones in Delhi, were used after notices were issued. Saxena swears he did not get the missing notice. Our country’s Supreme Court does give the impression it’s more powerful than the Centre. The mere mention of “we will take a serious view of all demolitions” is chilling with all its possibilities. It left many of the capital’s demolition crews transfixed. “Issue notice in all petitions. Status quo to be maintained. To be heard after two weeks,” said the top court.
Among the top lawyers fighting the cases are Dushyant Dave and Sanjay Hegde, who is pleading for a victim of the drive. Hedge is a regular in cases that are lodged to teach a lesson or two to the BJP. He also argued for the petitioners in the hijab row case. When top lawyers like Dave, Hegde, and Kapil Sibal aren’t arguing for VVIPs, they’re taking up cases that line up the Modi government for the kill. The demolitions do give the impression that the Modi Government is diligently targeting the homes and buildings of people of one community alone, whether it’s in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, or Rajasthan. But sometimes what you see in the mirror is not what it is, and where it is. The communal disturbances and demolitions in Jahangirpuri are being taken advantage of by unsavory elements for whom it doesn’t make much of a difference. Then again, who gets arrested and for what is random in BJP-ruled states. Imagine a police team from BJP-ruled Assam cutting across the Great Plains to BJP-ruled Gujarat to take into custody Jignesh Mevani for a tweet that took the names of Modi and Godse in the same breath!
