Authorities in New Delhi have stopped a demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh – a Muslim-majority neighbourhood at the heart of 2019-20 citizenship protests – after hundreds of residents and a number of opposition party workers gathered in protest.
No buildings were razed down before the bulldozers retreated on Monday.
The demolition drive planned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation was the latest in a series of demolition drives that have razed Muslim-owned properties in several states across India.
Critics say bulldozing of Muslim-owned properties and homes in the garb of the anti-encroachment drive is part of the ruling BJP’s majoritarian agenda.
As the bulldozers drove away, Mohammed Niyaz, a 47-year-old resident in the neighbourhood, called it “vote-bank politics” intended to divide the Hindu and Muslim communities.
“They (government) want to trouble us and keep them (Hindus) happy. It’s as simple as that. Trouble 20 percent of the people and take the vote of 80 percent. It’s vote bank politics,” he told Associated Press.
