“Bulldozer Justice” A Wagon of Injustice: Demolition of Homes and Hopes of Muslim Minorities under BJP Regimes In India

Paper Abstract: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” by Lord Acton is quoted by Punjab and Haryana High Court while issuing notice to the Haryana government halting bulldozer action in Nuh and Gurugram. With the BJP in power since 2014, anti-Muslim sentiment has been brewing in the country. Muslim minorities have been subject to hate crimes, religious persecution, and hate crimes, which are shattering the secular fabric of the nation. Recently, right-wing BJP-ruled states devised a new method to unleash wrath upon Muslims, which is Bulldozer justice. Bulldozer has become a symbol of instant (in)justice where Muslim homes are targeted and razed in disguise of upholding the rule of law without following due process of law. The bulldozer justice mastered by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister is now spreading to different BJP-ruled states with similar modes of Operandi. This paper aims to address the issue of state-sponsored hijacking of the rule of law by impeding the due process of law by examining the religious persecution of Muslim minorities in four different incidents in BJP-led states: Nuh(Haryana), Jahangirpuri(Delhi), Prayagraj(UP), and Khargone (MP). It also analyses how these ‘instant justice’ actions inflict trauma and terror in the minority community and question their belonging and existence to this country.