Bulldozers in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, uproar pauses anti-encroachment drive

Hundreds of local residents and some local politicians sat in front of the bulldozer, raising slogans against the civic body as well as the ruling BJP.

Officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) attempted to remove purported encroachments in the Shaheen Bagh area, triggering protests and blockades for close to three hours before they relented and returned without any action.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) workers in presence of Delhi Police during an anti-encroachment drive, at Shaheen Bagh area in New Delhi. (PTI)

The incident inflamed afresh a controversy now symbolised by bulldozers and demolitions that the opposition parties say is being used by civic bodies and state governments controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to target minority communities. The BJP rubbished these charges. The party’s Delhi unit leaders maintained — as did the SDMC — that the anti-encroachment drive in Shaheen Bagh was routine.

Monday’s action was close to the epicentre of the 100-day agitation against the Citizen (Amendment) Act, or CAA, that began in 2019 and comes less than a month after a demolition drive was carried out at Jahangirpuri following clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

At 11.30am on Thursday, an SDMC team reached with a bulldozer to a spot near the main road from Kalindi Kunj Park to remove encroachments, a drive it had planned for weeks but had to put off for lack of police permission.

Hundreds of local residents and some local politicians sat in front of the bulldozer, raising slogans against the civic body as well as the ruling BJP. They contended that whatever encroachment had happened in the area in the past had already been removed by locals of their own accord, and that there was no need for any drive or demolition in the area.

Seven people were detained in the process and a complaint was later filed by the SDMC against Okhla legislator and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Aamanatullah Khan and his supporters for obstructing government workers from carrying out their duties, hours after the state BJP chief Adesh Gupta urged SDMC mayor Mukesh Suryan to do so. The police later registered an FIR, invoking sections pertaining to assault of a public servant, obstruction and common intention.

Later in the day, Gupta held a press conference in which he referred to his recent letter addressed to people of Delhi and party workers and said: “We have been saying this since the start that the AAP is trying to protect Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya.”

“Encroachment on public land has nothing to do with any religion or community. The action taken in Jahangirpuri was not against a religion,” he said.

To be sure, encroachment is a problem but it is the timing of the action that is being questioned.

As per municipal laws, an encroachment is anything placed on public land without permission or license. It can vary from goods of street vendors and push carts, to ramps, staircases, extensions and even flowerpots and guard cabins. In April 2018, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs set up a 15-member inter-agency Special Task Force headed by the DDA vice-chairman to coordinate encroachment removal drives. A senior municipal official explained the STF has set a monthly target of clearing at least 100km of road/footpath by each of the municipal corporation. The latest action-taken report claims that over 922.84km of road, 610,913 sq m of temporary encroachments have been cleared by the three MCDs and NDMC in the first three months of 2022.

The current term of the three corporations ends between May 18 and 22, after which the batch of BJP functionaries in the municipalities as well as councillors will cease to hold their office. The civic bodies will be unified, a law for which has been signed by the President, and a special officer appointed by the Union home ministry will take over charge.

As the incident unfolded, a case pertaining to the Jahangirpuri demolitions was heard at the Supreme Court where petitioners from the CPI(M) urged the court to step in restrain the SDMC’s action in Shaheen Bagh — a plea the court denied.

The bench, led by justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai, drew a distinction between the Jahangirpuri matter, where the drive included structures, and the Shaheen Bagh instance, where the drive was against hawkers and encroachers on pavements.

The bench, adding that it could not entertain the matter at the insistence of a political party, also said: “We won’t protect encroachments being removed according to law. We have never given any license to anyone to say my house is unauthorized and I need to be protected. We are not considering encroachments across the country. Merely because we are showing indulgence does not mean you can take shelter under our order.”

It allowed CPI(M) to withdraw the plea and approach the high court.

While Delhi Police did not comment on why the drive was halted, an officer who was at the spot, while asking not to be named, said it was due to overhead high-tension wires.

The civic body stressed it was a routine anti-encroachment drive, but residents saw a political motive.

“We are being targeted because Shaheen Bagh was at the centre of the anti-CAA protests. Entire Delhi has a problem of encroachment, why are they selectively targeting our locality,” said Mohammed Anees, a 48-year-old resident of Shaheen Bagh’s G block.

In the last fortnight, SDMC made three requests to the police to remove encroachments from the area but were denied forces. Police said in its reply to SDMC that the area was “extremely sensitive from law-and-order point of view” and “local political leaders may carry out protest against demolition drive”. It finally agreed to provide security at 11.15am on Monday.

The AAP and the Delhi government did not comment on the issue separately.

Following an announcement by the SDMC of the drive beginning at 11am, residents, local traders and political leaders began to gather at the GD Birla road, which connects Noida to Sarita Vihar and other parts of south Delhi.

When the drive began, people sat in the way of the bulldozer, thwarting police efforts to create a security ring. Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan and his supporters reached the site around half an hour later, and said people have themselves removed temporary extensions, benches and goods on his appeal a few days back. “Where is encroachment on this road? I am area MLA and this is PWD road — MCD should tell me where the encroachment is and we will get it removed. With our own JCB machines, we recently removed a temporary wuzu-khana in front of local mosque. If people have listened to me, why would people not come when something wrong is being carried out. This is not Hindu-Muslim issue. Half of these shops belong to Hindu brothers,” he added.

Amit Sharma, manager of a store whose shutter was half shut, said many shops had shut for Monday fearing action, while many opened after the bulldozers left. “Business has already been impacted for today and nobody is going to come to this market. When the bulldozers came, most of the market was shut due to fear but later opened,” he said.

By noon, the blockade on the arterial road led to a cascading traffic problem across Kalindi Kunj, Jaitpur, Sarita Vihar and parts of Mathura road.

The first target of the bulldozer — a shop with some scaffolding in front for signage and shuttering work — was led untouched. The owner of the shop removed the scaffolding while the bulldozer stood by.

Last month, coinciding during the Hindu Ram Navami celebrations and the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, a number of demolition drives took place in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka — all ruled by the BJP. Some of these followed clashes between the two communities, and opposition parties alleged the targets of the drives were largely Muslims.