In Yogi Raj in Uttar Pradesh, bulldozer seems to have emerged as an instrument to assert authority of the law and to protect land properties of law abiding citizens as well as government properties from mafias.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath minces no word in saying that bulldozer is the only treatment (answer) for those who capture government properties as well as innocent civilians.
निर्दोष लोगों की संपत्ति व सरकारी संपत्ति पर अवैध कब्जा करने वालों का एक ही उपचार है – बुलडोजर।
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) September 18, 2021
“Nirdosh logon ki sampati wa sarkari sampati par awaidh kabja karne walon ka ek hi upchar hai—bulldozer,” the tweet of Yogi Adityanath reads.
This seems to be a response to Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party who took a jibe on the BJP stating that the BJP should replace lotus and pick bulldozer as the party symbol. Yadav had remarked this in the wake of the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh having undertaken a massive drive against illegal occupation of private and government properties by powerful persons, politicians and mafias of the state.
If the very image of bulldozer demolishing such illegal occupations irks Akhilesh Yadav and his party this may be because Yogi’s bulldozers demolished many illegal properties of many Samajwadi Party leaders which they had captured during regime of their party. For instance the mighty like Iqbal Ali, Azam Khan, Atik Ahmed and others have the first hand experience of the might of the bulldozers which demolished the notion that they are above the law.
In June 2020, the dental college constructed illegally on government land by former state minister of Samajwadi Party Iqbal Ali, was demolished.
पूर्व राज्यमंत्री इकबाल अली की ज़मींदोज़ हो रही इमारत सबूत है योगीराज में बुलंद हो चुके क़ानून राज का,ये इमारत पिछली सरकार में सरकारी ज़मीन क़ब्ज़ा कर बनाई गई थी,3 सालों से योगी जी का बुलडोज़र लगातार ऐसी इमारतों पर चल रहा,आज सरकारी ज़मीनें भूमाफ़ियों से पूरी तरह ख़ाली हो चुकी हैं pic.twitter.com/jghL4FOxwQ
— Shalabh Mani Tripathi (@shalabhmani) June 24, 2020
Azam Khan who once used to enjoy enormous power is facing dozen of cases of land grab. The Yogi government demolished Urdu gate of his Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur constructed on the government land.
In no time the government bulldozed the illegal empire of Atik Ahmed in Praayagraj and elsewhere. Similar action was taken against encroachment by Rohingya infiltrators who had captured 2.1 acres government land.
What Yogi said that sometimes there is only one treatment that is bulldozer. He was addressing a gathering of intellectuals during Prabudh Varg Sammelan also that was held in Lucknow on Saturday.
पहले डीजीपी आवास के पास एक शत्रु संपत्ति पर अवैध कब्जा था। मैंने कहा कि इसका एक ही उपचार है- बुल्डोजर। कभी-कभी ज्यादा पंचायत न करके सीधे जवाब देने की जरूरत होती है: मुख्यमंत्री श्री @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/wTND0GOWrb
— BJP Uttar Pradesh (@BJP4UP) September 18, 2021
Yogi Adityanath accused the previous Samajwadi Party governments for allowing gangsters to build illegal houses on government lands. He justified bulldozers running over such properties and said that sometimes it is better to give a direct answer rather than doing by not doing too much meetings and negotiations.
During his address Yogi Adityanath said that when he was not the chief minister he had gone to DGP office where he came to know that in Lucknow opposite to DGP office a dreaded mafia had constructed five massive buildings on the land notified as enemy property.
“I said it has a solution. If nothing happens then we have the bulldozer. I knew that doing too many meetings and negotiations creates problem and in such a situation there is a need to give a direct answer and when the process of direct answer started no mafia now dare to capture land of any businessman, law abiding citizen and the government land. So many are running away and surrendering properties they had captured,” Yogi Adityanath said.
In the poll bound Uttar Pradesh where assembly election is scheduled next year, the bulldozer has grabbed the center stage of entire poll discourse and this Sanyasi politician doesn’t hide that he will keep using bulldozers against mafias.
