Protests have been erupting in many cities to condemn India's demolition of Muslim-owned properties, in what critics call a pattern of 'bulldozer justice' by the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP aimed at punishing the minority community
Several Indian cities have protested to condemn the ruling BJP's selective demolition drive targeting Muslim-owned shops and homes, in what critics call"a form of collective extrajudicial punishment."
"The demolitions are a gross violation of constitutional norms and ethics," Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a specialist on Hindu nationalist politics and biographer of Modi, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The party suspended one of them and expelled the other, issuing a rare statement saying it "strongly denounces insults of any religious personalities."On Tuesday, 12 prominent people, including former Supreme Court and High Court judges and lawyers, sent a letter to India's chief justice urging him to hold a hearing on the demolitions, calling them illegal and "a form of collective extrajudicial punishment.
Several Muslim-majority countries have also criticised the remarks, and protesters in Bangladesh called for a boycott of Indian products, leaving India's government scrambling to contain the diplomatic backlash.