Bulldozing!

On Saturday afternoon, the Democratic Azad Party Chief Ghulam Nabi Azad was addressing his party workers at office headquarters in Srinagar. He was asking them to call off region wise agitation that was going on for over a month following the instructions from the government to remove encroachments from the state land in Jammu and Kashmir.
Azad didn’t personally participate in any protests that took place across the districts but was continuously active on social media to support his party.
They demanded that no poor or needy person shall suffer under the eviction drive though they support the process of retrieving land from influential and big guns.
 He was addressing his workers in Srinagar after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi who according to him had assured that only large chunks of land will be retrieved and no poor shall be touched during the drive.
Azad during his over 20 minutes speech insisted that his party will support the poor and he was assured that no poor person shall be touched or evicted from his home under the directives from the government.
He even called off his agitation and said future course of action will be depending on the action being taken on ground following the assurances from highest authorities.
As he completed the speech, the disturbing visuals from the Padshahi Bagh area appeared on social media showing bulldozers vandalizing a marginal community’s businesses under the eviction drive.
The drive took place within two kilometres from his venue, amply clear that no one is spared and the assurances at the highest level are falling flat.
These scrap collectors whose temporary sheds were demolished claim that no notice was served to them and they have been running businesses here for more than three decades.
This was not an isolated incident and many such visuals were playing on social media handles in which people, especially women were seeking mercy from authorities.
The authorities on the other side are downplaying any highhandedness and claim that no poor and innocent are touched under the eviction process.
Some people even claim that the legal possession of land is overturned by revenue authorities and it is being taken away without any intimation.
No political party is speaking anymore. All are left clueless and are on the defensive front.
The initial targets were the top political leaders who had captured large swaths of state land. It has led to a dramatic fall in their moral standing over the issue. BJP’ s top most leader and former deputy chief minister Kevinder Gupta, Senior Congress leader Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, ANC chief Muzaffar Shah, PC Chief Sajad Lone’s sister Shabnum Lone and dozens others were figured in the list of land grabbers.
The land has been retrieved from them and the process is still underway. Given this tactful drive that eroded moral standing for these leaders except DAP and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti no other political party speaks over the issue now.
The eviction process has triggered chaos and anxiety among people.
They live a life of uncertainty which has affected their peace of mind. No one is sure who is safe and whose property is next to face the bulldozer.
The government seems adamant to issue written directions to authorities and ask them not to touch poor people.
The people with marginal land holdings who are verbally assured that no one will touch their homes even insist the authorities to issue the written order.
Nothing such has come out so far.
Some political leaders believe that the drive is being carried out to disempower the majority population of Jammu and Kashmir as it fulfils the agenda of BJP backed by RSS.
“They do it as it is their long pending agenda to disempower the particular community,” said PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti.
 Mufti said that the people of UT must resist and oppose it with unity since it is not benefiting anyone except those who have a particular agenda.
Ghulam Nabi Azad also questions the move and said that across the country no such drive is being carried out and successive regimes have been regularising these settlements from time to time as per the law.
“I am saying it with authority that such settlements in the country are being regularised by all regimes from time to time. I am well aware since I was an urban Minister in the centre government,” he said, adding “Why no such laws are followed in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be clarified by the center government.”