New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today slammed the BJP-led Central government, stating that the country’s image was being damaged overseas. Noting that the Supreme Court has today postponed an anti-encroachment drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri neighborhood, the Thiruvananthapuram MP branded the officials’ actions as ‘illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional.’
‘India’s image is deteriorating throughout the world. Everything I’ve heard from my international pals has been really bad. We are associated with minority persecution and Islamophobia. We used to be admired for our democracy and variety. The BJP is to blame ‘Today, Tharoor made a claim. With its ‘shameful’ behavior today, the government, he continued, has lost the faith of many citizens. ‘The administration that was elected to build has instead opted to demolish. A government’s responsibility is to build up the country, not tear it down’, he explained.
Earlier on Wednesday, bulldozers demolished many buildings in the violent Jahangirpuri neighborhood as part of a North Delhi Municipal Corporation anti-encroachment effort. The operation had proceeded despite the huge deployment of paramilitary and police forces until the authorities acquired a ‘written order’ from the Supreme Court to halt it.
The Supreme Court had also consented to consider a petition contesting the civic body’s claimed action against people involved in the area’s ethnic confrontations on Saturday. ‘Homes and businesses were devastated. It’s a heinous crime that should result in significant consequences. This is a new form of intimidation that will destroy our country. It is an assault on the principles enshrined in India’s constitution’, Tharoor continued.
Despite the court’s order to stop the drive, it had gone on for quite some time in the lack of a formal order. ‘The Supreme Court had issued an order that the status quo must be preserved and demolition should not commence, but the demolitions did resume four hours later, which is unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional because no warning was provided to the victims,’ Tharoor added. ‘Investigate thoroughly, find out who’s guilty, take them to Court, give them notifications. If the end penalty is destruction, which is a very brutal public punishment, let there at least be adequate notices so people can make plans’, he continued.
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