While the UP chief minister has called for strict action against errant officers in the Noida twin tower case, it would be profound poetic justice if bulldozers were taken to the houses of corrupt babus, and their homes reduced to rubble with no prior warning
In the Summer of 2019, JCB videos were the biggest thing on social media. A groom in Chhattisgarh even rode to his wedding on a JCB decorated with flowers. These were benign ‘time-pass’ videos, which helped us plumb the depths of our earthly boredom.
Come the summer of 2022, and it’s the bulldozer that seems to have gripped the nation’s imagination. Demolition drives have been carried out in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand; not wanting to be left behind, Karnataka too has promised to jump on the bulldozer bandwagon. In Delhi, the bulky monster has crawled into the lanes of Shaheen Bagh, Jahangirpuri, Madanpur Khadar, Mangolpuri, Rohini, Gokulpuri, Janakpuri, New Friends Colony and Lodhi Colony, causing wanton destruction. One hopes the bulldozer drivers do not end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A well-known TV journalist went on a joyride on the machine; Brinda Karat famously stood in the path of one, waving a Supreme Court order. Over in UP, Yogi Adityanath’s supporters appropriated Samajwadi Party’s jibe of “Bulldozer Baba” and turned it into a winning slogan with great emotive appeal, much like how the BJP had earlier turned around Mani Shanker Aiyar’s ‘chaiwala’ remark to their own benefit. When Adityanath won, his supporters celebrated by taking out winning processions on bulldozers. Madhya P’s chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fondly referred to by the moniker, “Bulldozer Mama”.
On the street, the bulldozer is a potent symbol of the brute power of the state. It is hard to deny that in the most recent instances, a single community has been targeted disproportionately. As Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has pointed out, “Delhi has not developed as a planned city. More than 80 per cent of Delhi can be called illegal and encroached upon. Does that mean that you will destroy 80 per cent of Delhi?”
The bulldozer, like the sedition law, can be wielded as a political weapon. The fascination with the bulldozer overrides party lines. In 2020, the Shiv Sena-led BMC took the bulldozer to Kangana Ranaut’s Pali Hill residence. The fact that she is a vocal critic of the state government cannot be disregarded. In 2018, the Kamal Nath-led Congress launched a ‘Shuddhi ke liye yudh’, a war against adulteration, where the properties of those indulging in adulteration were demolished. Delhi has seen bulldozer drives in the past. The popular Goan restaurant, Bernardos, in Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, was an early victim; while another popular bar, 4S, in Defence Colony, turned into a Prohibition-era speakeasy. The patrons would drink in candle light, for the first floor had been deemed as unauthorised.
The bulldozer in India plays the role that the “Angry Young Man” played in Indian cinema. When the system is corrupt, the bulldozer is seen as delivering the shock-and-awe counter punch that sorts out all kinds of evil, from the land mafia and adulterated petrol, to the mafia and eve-teasing — a BJP MP from Bhopal coined the slogan: “Beti ki suraksha mein jo banega rora, mama ka bulldozer banega hathora.” (The green fig leaf that the yellow bulldozer wears, is that of “the anti-encroachment drive”.) It’s also supposed to battle the scourge of alcoholism. Earlier this month in Gujarat, authorities ran the bulldozer over seized cartons of beer cans and 25,000 bottles of IMFL.
In Dehradun, they went after a row of Chicken Points and motor mechanic shops. The former moved into new premises across the road, while the motor mechanics found an ingenious way to service their old clientele. The mechanic lurks behind a tree with a suitcase filled with tools and spares. As soon as a car or motorcycle pulls up, the mechanic materialises out of thin air like a djinn, and gets to work.
In each of these ‘encroachment drives’, it’s the poorest who are the hardest hit, their makeshift kiosks, their only means of livelihood, having been razed to the ground. And while political parties have a slugfest, what does the small business owner do? It might sound absurd but a solution offered itself to me the other day. In uncertain times, when one doesn’t know which locality is going to be targeted next, one cannot live in mortal fear of one’s shop being flattened without warning.
A bulldozer demolishes a stall during the anti-encroachment drive conducted by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) at New Friends Colony, Delhi. ANI
The other day, I noticed a chola kulcha guy who had repurposed his humble bicycle as a small food outlet. There was a foldable wooden plank on the side where two people could stand and eat. A wastepaper bin was attached to the back seat. The stove was pinned to the front bar. A small box attached to the front handle bar held paper napkins. This person will never fear the bulldozer– send as many as you want. When the bulldozer comes, he will simply mount his bicycle and pedal off into the sunset. Next day, he will find a new street corner.
We might have turned the bulldozer into a weapon of mass destruction, but, perhaps, we shouldn’t forget that it originally wasn’t supposed to play this role. An All-American invention of the early 20th century, it brought about a revolution in farming practices and enabled the rapid construction of road networks, shipyards and airports.
Meanwhile, in Noida, a demolition of a different sort, and on a grander scale — our very own 9/11 twin tower tragedy. The towers were originally supposed to have come down on 22 May; the Supreme Court recently extended the deadline to 28 August. The builder constructed two additional towers illegally, not taking into consideration the norm regarding spacing between buildings. The RWA successfully contested the illegal construction; essentially, it was a battle for sunlight, fresh air, a patch of lawn, a mouthful of sky.
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The irony is difficult to miss here. Noida is a ghost town of skeletal structures and abandoned building sites. Lakhs of homebuyers, including my parents, have lost their lives’ savings. The builder declares bankruptcy and takes the next flight to London. The process of booking a flat is as sordid and ugly as it gets, with the most honest of buyers having to mandatorily shell out hard cash in black. For those of us who never got possession of our flats, the Supertech case has shades of dark humour. At least, they managed to put the two towers up — a Noida miracle of sorts.
Another problem that plagues home buyers is that of poor construction. Building collapses are a common occurrence. In February, in a Gurugram apartment block, one person died while the other residents were forced to evacuate, after such a collapse due to heavy rains. A portion of a balcony had fallen off the previous year. In Mumbai, film critic Raja Sen was shooting an indie film in a block of flats, when the floor gave way and the crew landed on the dining table on the floor beneath, rudely interrupting the neighbour’s lunch.
The second irony in the twin towers case is that not only did Supertech manage to construct the towers, they did such a fine job of it, that extra time is now required to finish the process of detonating it, hence the Supreme Court ruling. Edifice, the private firm entrusted with the demolition job, has argued that the foundations of the building are very strong; two additional floors will have to be detonated, not part of the original plan. Four tonnes of explosives will be used to bring down the 100-metre tall structures. Traffic will be held up on the expressway for an hour, while the controlled explosion will take a grand total of nine seconds. Years of construction and litigation gone up in a mushroom cloud of smoke, in the blink of an eye.
A simple straight question here: How do these buildings and encroachments come up in the first place? Who grants permission? While the builder-politician nexus exists, the babu sitting in the local development authority or civic body is equally culpable. The odd builder is thrown into jail every once in a rare while, but nothing happens to the corrupt desi babu, the nodal point for corruption over the decades.
Those whose shops and homes are demolished for being encroachments have a common refrain: “To construct these buildings people have had to pay off the MCD and the police.”
In the twin towers case, the SC, in its judgement, clearly mentioned that the builders had put up the buildings in “collusion with Noida officials”. While CM Adityanath has ordered an investigation and called for strict action against guilty officers, it would be profound poetic justice if bulldozers were taken to the houses of these corrupt babus, and their homes reduced to rubble with no prior warning.
The writer is the author of ‘The Butterfly Generation’ and the editor of ‘House Spirit: Drinking in India’. Views expressed are personal.
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