Life and loss of life in a ‘bulldozer republic’

Shashikant Jatav and Amarkant Singh Chouhan by no means imagined that chasing the reality would land them in a police lockup — and practically price them their lives.

The 2 journalists from Bhind, Madhya Pradesh, had been digging deep right into a story most individuals had lengthy realized to keep away from: the unlawful sand mining mafia, and the police officers shielding them. However on 19 Could, the very man they had been investigating — Bhind’s superintendent of police Asit Yadav — known as them to his workplace for a chat over tea. What adopted was not dialog, however violence.

The 2 had been mercilessly thrashed by cops and needed to take refuge in Delhi the place they had been pressured to maneuver the Delhi Excessive Courtroom after which the Supreme Courtroom looking for safety.

In a transparent try at intimidation, a police crew from Bhind was seen tenting exterior the Delhi Excessive Courtroom through the listening to of the case on 28 Could. The Supreme Courtroom did grant the journalists interim safety from arrest, however requested them to strategy the Madhya Pradesh Excessive Courtroom inside two weeks. The state counsel implied that the reporters had been a part of an extortion racket, a cost that continues to be unsubstantiated as who may dare extract cash from cops!

The nexus between the police and the sand mining mafia runs deep and has grown bolder and extra violent over time.

The South Asia Community on Dams, Rivers and Individuals has drawn up a listing of 5 journalists, 15 authorities officers and 35 villagers suspected of being killed by the sand mafia in 2019–20. Essentially the most high-profile of those was the capturing of journalist Shubham Mani Tripathi on 19 June 2020 in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao. He was investigating unlawful land offers and his killers had been allegedly linked to highly effective actual property pursuits.

This, and quite a few subsequent incidents, is a snapshot of a rustic the place justice is being bulldozed, reality is on the run and the road between criminals and cops is rising thinner by the day.

In September 2023, Vijay Soni was gunned down by the police in Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh. The ‘encounter’ was recorded on video. The bullet that hit him was actual. The story was faux. A courtroom later dominated it wasn’t a reputable operation however a cold-blooded capturing. And but, practically two years later, no motion has been taken towards the 12 officers concerned. No FIRs. No suspensions. Simply silence.

Soni’s mom continues to hunt justice, stating that three FIRs filed in connection to the capturing all place it in the identical location, suggesting deliberate falsification of information. Vishal Gogne, a further classes choose in Delhi, flagged a disturbing development the place police shot suspects within the knees — with the victims typically blindfolded beforehand. Gogne labelled these acts as ‘vigilante justice’, a stark indictment of how rule of legislation has been changed by rule of power.

This sample of State-enabled violence extends properly past unlawful mining. Throughout India, notably in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Manipur, police forces have more and more taken on the twin position of investigator and executioner, with encounter killings and ‘prompt justice’ turning into the norm.

However encounters aren’t the one instruments getting used to ship abstract punishment. The bulldozer has emerged as a potent political image. Between 2022 and 2023, greater than 1.5 lakh homes have been demolished, leaving over seven lakh individuals homeless.

Within the coronary heart of Lucknow, 70-year-old Shabana Begum stood in entrance of the rubble of what was once her residence — 4 rooms that housed three generations. On 19 June 2024, greater than 1,100 properties like hers in Akbarnagar had been razed in a single day as a part of a authorities drive to ‘clear’ land for an ecotourism hub.

In Siasat Nagar, Ahmedabad, 8,000 properties had been demolished utilizing 50 bulldozers with over 3,000 policemen standing guard.

The individuals shedding their properties are principally Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis — communities already teetering on the sting of survival. The Supreme Courtroom has come down closely on states for demolishing properties of suspected criminals, and ordered that officers should situation prior discover and that they can not take arbitrary motion towards suspects or convicts with out following the due strategy of legislation.

‘It’s not a contented sight to see ladies, kids and aged individuals dragged to the streets in a single day. Heavens wouldn’t fall if authorities maintain their palms for some interval,’ the courtroom noticed. And but, the bulldozers hold rolling.

Following the phobia assault in Pahalgam, authorities used explosives to demolish homes of suspected militants and their households — typically ancestral properties occupied by joint households. Thus, lots of had been rendered homeless in a single day.

These demolitions are finished on scant proof. In tribal-dominated Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, police demolished 11 properties in June 2024 after ‘receiving a tip-off’ about unlawful beef commerce — one other space the place mob rule typically trumps authorized norms. The State has repeatedly didn’t crack down on cow vigilante mobs, which proceed to assault and kill Muslim males underneath the guise of defending cows.

On 24 Could, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, 4 males transporting meat in a mini-truck had been lynched by a mob, and the car set ablaze. The mob suspected that beef was being transported. However forensic assessments confirmed 4 days later that the meat was not beef. The victims, now hospitalised, might survive, however their attackers are unlikely to face justice.

To this point, the State has didn’t convict sufficient vigilantes for it to be important, at the same time as encounter killings in UP alone have surpassed 30,000.

The ‘Standing of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2025’ — based mostly on a survey of over 17 states and masking 8,276 police personnel throughout city and rural areas — confirms the worst fears. The report, revealed by Frequent Trigger and the Lokniti Programme of the Centre for the Examine of Growing Societies, discovered that caste, faith and political affiliation closely affect police actions.

Greater than 1 / 4 (27 per cent) of officers justified mob violence in instances of sexual harassment or kidnapping; 59 per cent admitted to not following arrest protocols; 62 per cent of Delhi Police power believed Muslims are ‘naturally inclined’ in direction of crime; Gujarat Police confirmed the very best stage of bias towards Dalits and Adivasis.

Paramjeet Singh, secretary of the Individuals’s Union for Democratic Rights, flagged the underreporting of custodial deaths. In 2020, the Nationwide Crime Information Bureau documented 76 custodial deaths, whereas the Nationwide Human Rights Fee recorded 90. However judicial inquiries had been ordered in solely 35 per cent of these instances.

A brand new first has been created with the police not hesitating to beat up and intimidate journalists. Reporters With out Borders has questioned the Indian authorities for not figuring out or taking motion towards these answerable for intimidating/ attacking journalists.

India’s democracy was constructed on the promise of justice, liberty and dignity for all. That promise now feels dangerously frayed. So the place is the accountability? The place is the outrage from the highest? The silence from Prime Minister Narendra Modi is conspicuous.

Critics argue that India is sliding right into a mobocracy, the place bulldozers and bullets have changed courts and constitutional safety.