DNA Exclusive: Analysis of row over demolition drive in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh

New Delhi: Fresh protest erupted in the national capital’s Shaheen Bagh area on Monday (May 9, 2022) when the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) started its anti-encroachment drive in the area and its adjoining localities. Hundreds of people, including women, physically blocked bulldozers and forced the local municipal authority to abandon an anti-encroachment drive in Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of a three-month-long agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act beginning in December 2019.

In today's DNA, Zee News Editor-In-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary makes an analysis of unrest in Shaheen Bagh over the civic body’s anti-encroachment drive. 

#DNA: - https://t.co/ZoADfwBf2S pic.twitter.com/rYW8jdZLN4 — Zee News (@ZeeNews) May 9, 2022

On Monday, bulldozers of the Delhi municipal corporation arrived in the area with assistance provided by Delhi Police to carry out its anti-encroachment drive. But, the local residents of the area protested as bulldozers rolled. Locals were seen sitting on the roads and stopping the bulldozers, bringing the demolition drive at standstill, claiming that such steps are clear case of encroachment on Muslims.

Even after three hours of effort, senior officials of the municipal corporation could not remove the encroachments despite having assistance from police force. This is the first time in the country that bulldozers had to return empty-handed from an area. 

The most worrying aspect is that the people, who were illegally occupying government land, stopped the local administration and the police from doing their job and the municipal corporation had no other option but to return empty handed. This is, probably, the first time in the history of India when the law became helpless in front of the people of one area.

The area witnessed a high voltage drama with many Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress workers staging protests in the area to obstruct the civic body's ongoing anti-encroachment drive. Due to this, the Shaheen Bagh demolition drive has been halted for today as officials returned with the bulldozers following the unrest, the municipal body said that the anti-encroachment exercise will resume after the review meeting.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of India, which earlier put a stay on the Jahangirpuri and Sarojini Nagar demolitions, refused to intervene stating that the court can’t entertain every encroachment exercise-related case.