India: Court Asks if Home Demolitions are "Ethnic Cleansing"

Facts

• On Monday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanded a stop to the multi-day demolition of Muslim homes and businesses in India's Haryana state. The court questioned if the demolition was occurring to uphold the law or as a means of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing.¹
• Following last week's violent Hindu-Muslim unrest on Thursday, India's Haryana state began bulldozing more than 300 homes and shops owned by Muslim residents. Six people were killed during the outbreak of violence, including Muslims, Hindus, and members of the police guard.²
• The court, in their ruling, cast a warning at the state government saying, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The ruling comes after the court witnessed media reports that blamed the demolitions on "anti-social activities" that the state used to deem the homes and shops illegally constructed and slated for demolition.³
• In response to the High Courts ruling, Mohammad Arshad, a lawyer for the victims said, "About 176 demolition cases have come to light. If the High Court had not taken cognizance, the number could have increased. More complaints are being filed, the petitioners are coming forward. At present, the government needs to see that the people whose houses were destroyed are rehabilitated."⁴
• There has been ongoing violence between Hindu and Muslim worshipers since 2015, spurred on by national and regional electoral success of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).⁵
• India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remained largely silent as the violence ratchets up in areas where his party has a majority and holds power. The violence has neared civil war, even resulting in a no-confidence vote in Parliament this week.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera (a), ²Al Jazeera (b), ³Outlook India, ⁴Mint, ⁵Reuters, and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Reuters. The BJP has loudly denounced any derogatory behavior on the basis of religion. The party backs these strong statements with action, as evidenced in the suspensions and experiments that have occurred within the party over rogue and insulting comments. Opponents of Modi should not be weaponizing sad incidences of political violence for their own gain, they should be joining the BJP in rebuking them entirely.
• Narrative B, as provided by Washington Post. While Modi is touring the world spouting rhetoric about democracy and touting his economic prowess, his domestic policies paint a different legacy. He and his party have incited Hindu hatred toward the country's more than 220M Muslims. Modi has allowed more than 50 anti-Muslim rallies in populous city centers to occur that are often organized, led, and attended by party representatives. As long as Modi is in power, Muslims will continue to live in fear of the "democracy" that he promotes.

Predictions