A day after properties of those accused of attacking a police station in Chhatarpur were demolished, various Congress leaders slammed the Madhya Pradesh Government and accused it of spreading hate against the Muslim community, Indian media reported. Rajya Sabha member and Congress’ minority department national chairman Imran Pratapgarhi said that the State governments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party are finding excuses to bulldoze the houses of Muslims. He also said that he will soon approach the Supreme Court on the matter. “See another example of the BJP government’s hatred against Muslims. In Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, Haji Shahzad’s house was razed to the ground at the behest of the Chief Minister [Mohan Yadav]. Narendra Modi Ji is roaming around the world chanting the slogan of ‘Sabka Sath - Sabka Vikas’ and his state governments are finding excuses and demolishing the houses of Muslims. The Modi government, which took oath on the Constitution, is crushing the Constitution every day under this bulldozer. I will soon approach the Supreme Court on this issue,” Mr Pratapgarhi wrote on X, formerly Twitter, with a video of the demolition drive.

After a large mob attacked the Kotwali police station with stones on August 21, the administration began a crackdown on the accused the next day and demolished the houses of various of them, including prime accused Haji Shehzad Ali’s lavish bungalow. Mr Ali is a former district Congress vice-president. Four police personnel were injured in the stone pelting after which the police have booked over 150 people and arrested around 30, including Mr Ali’s brother Fayyaz Ali. Superintendent of Police Agam Jain told The Hindu that various teams are working to nab Mr Shehzad Ali and other accused. The members of the Muslim community were protesting against the alleged inflammatory remarks made against Islam by Ramgiri Maharaj, a Maharashtra-based Hindu religious leader, last week in Nashik district during a religious event. The minority department of the Opposition party said that the BJP governments are neck-deep in hatred against Dalits, minorities, and tribals. “Their state governments are oppressing Muslims, Dalits, and tribals by finding excuses. The BJP governments that have taken oath on the Constitution are crushing the Constitution every day under this bulldozer,” it said on X.

Meanwhile, Mr Ali also released a video on social media and termed the whole event a conspiracy and demanded a fair probe. “When the station in-charge and police were stopping people, a clash took place between them. During this, some miscreants pelted stones. I stopped people on the instructions of the police. I also got hit by stones and slippers and stones were thrown from both sides. Police also pelted stones. Seeing the situation deteriorating, I left from there,” he said, alleging that the police misled the Chief Minister about him. Various other leaders from Congress as well as other Opposition parties also slammed the government action. Azad Samaj Party chief and MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Nagina Chandra Shekhar Azad requested the Supreme Court of taking cognisance of the matter and prohibit the illegal bulldozer action. “It seems that the government has become the judiciary,” he said on X. Madhya Preadesh Congress MLA Arif Masood wrote to Mr Yadav and said that the Constitution is almost on the verge of an end in the state.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan