Murder Most Foul

Pramila, 41 had lived a humble life like countless other rustic citizens in village Madauli in the Uttar Pradesh district of Kanpur. Pramila’s castle was a straw hut put together by her husband Krishna Gopal which she had shared with daughter Neha and son Shivam.

When the family saw a monstrous bulldozer come roaring towards its hut earlier this week, they tried to save the only home they had by refusing to leave it. There are videos to show how Pramila had resisted the demolition, and a voice is heard ordering the driver of the bulldozer to run over the hut that was first set on fire.

The father and son suffered severe burn injuries but managed to escape the burning hut. Pramila perished trying to save her daughter from the flames.

Both mother and daughter had lit up in a bonfire. As if that was not enough agony, the bulldozer pushed ahead to flatten them, and their hut into the ground.

There was a crowd of people including villagers and government officials who witnessed the death of Pramila and her daughter but none stepped forward to do anything to save the two.

Pramila’s hut was destroyed by local officials after a complaint by a local official that the hut was illegally built on government owned land. Pramila’s family claims that it has been living on the land, and living off it for at least a century.

According to officials, Pramila’s family members were squatters. Pramila’s family says that generations before them had lived on the same land in the same village and that they have known no other home except this one.

Shocked members of society argue that after living in the same place for so long the case is no longer about encroachment. The rights of adverse possession eventually always mature into rights of ownership.

Besides no notice, no warning was sent to the alleged squatters.

All demolition of illegal occupation of land demands that no citizen is hurt leave alone killed, during an operation of eviction. The height of heartlessness of the administrative and police force is difficult to fathom as it made no attempt to rescue the mother and daughter who were roasted inside the hut, making senior Samajwadi Party (S.P.) leader Shivpal Singh Yadav warn that all those who had once clapped at the bulldozer politics of the ruling party in the past will slap their forehead in the future at the cruel state of affairs in the state.

Dance Of Death

While Pramila and her daughter were fighting the flames that had eventually licked up their life, the District Magistrate (D.M.) Neha Jain was performing a hula-hoop dance on stage at a cultural festival nearby.

The villagers of Madauli believe that the orders to destroy Pramila’s family must have come from the DM’s office.

It is reported that Pramila had tried to meet the DM last January but her complaint was not entertained. Pramila and her family members were hounded out of the DM’s office, making Pramila’s son Shivam believe that the plan was not to just evict the family but a plot to murder them all.

True to the spirit of Upsidedown Pradesh (U.P.) where the victim is invariably held responsible whether it is an incident of rape, theft or murder unless of course he or she is close to the ruling party, it is now being rumoured that it was Pramila and her daughter who had set fire to their own hut.

The very poor family of Pramila is being called a land grabbing mafia!

The police have registered a case against 13 people for attempted murder including petty government officials, policemen and the driver of the bulldozer.

But there is no mention of who gave the driver of the bulldozer orders to roll the powerful machine over a straw hut and those inside it?

Today there are many who may admire the bulldozer politics so dear to the heart of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but others would like the ruling party to know that the purpose of a bulldozer is to help in building roads and clearing up the earth to make life more comfortable for citizens. Bulldozers are used for shallow digging and ditching.

Bulldozers help in spreading and levelling soil, in removing trees, stumps and boulders. A bulldozer is supposed to be used as an instrument of development, and not destruction.

It is true that a bulldozer is able to do many types of excavation but digging graves to bury citizens alive is certainly not the purpose of this machinery.

U.P’s Ugly Politics

More disgrace was rained upon U.P, the country's most populous and most backward province recently by respected priests and politicians.

Ayodhya’s Hanuman Garhi Mahant Raju Das and supporters of S.P. leader Swami Prasad Maurya had turned the leafy premises of Lucknow’s majestic Taj Hotel into a battlefield last Wednesday.

The Mahant was visiting Lucknow to attend a live debate hosted by a television channel at the hotel. Raju Das told the media that Maurya was accompanied by a large group of people who beat him, and Mahant Paramhans Das on orders from Maurya.

Maurya accused Raju Das of attacking him with a spear and a sword. Earlier this week, Maurya was shown black flags in Varanasi and there were attempts to smear him in ink by alleged followers of the ruling party. But Maurya had escaped the crowds in Varanasi.

A few days ago Raju Das had announced a reward of Rs 21 lakh to anyone who would bring him the head of Maurya. Raju Das is angry over the remarks made by Maurya against lines found in the holy text of the Ramcharitmanas that are interpreted as derogatory to lower caste people and women.

Once elected to power, Maurya promises to expunge the same lines from the ‘Ramcharitmanas’ written in the 17th Century by Vaishnava Hindu poet Tulsidas who was a devotee of Lord Rama.

Many an upper caste legislator, even in the S.P, is annoyed with Maurya, a backward caste senior politician for his remarks against Tulsidas and the ‘Ramcharitmanas’.

Where this battle amongst voters in the state belonging to different classes, communities, castes and faiths is headed is dangerously difficult to predict.