Bhopal:Apparently buoyed by Yogi Adityanath's victory in the assembly elections, the Madhya Pradesh government under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has borrowed the 'tough-on-criminals' modus operandi of the Uttar Pradesh administration involving bulldozing properties of criminals.
In MP, however, the bulldozer has been modified into 'Mama ka bulldozer' (uncle's bulldozer), with Chouhan being the 'mama' himself. Hoardings, too, have come up near MLA rest house in Bhopal's Arera Hills area. "Whoever plays with the respect of our sisters and daughters, will see the bulldozer reach their door. Those who become roadblocks in providing security to our daughters, the bulldozer will turn into a hammer", the hoardings say, alongside a picture of Shivraj Singh Chouhan in a warning gesture. The billboard also shows a house being demolished. The hoardings were installed by BJP MLA Rameshwar Sharma.
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The actions of the state administration, however, are not limited to just theatrics. Within a matter of two days, hideouts of the accused in two separate incidents of rape were destroyed using bulldozers in Sheopur and Seoni districts. A similar incident of violence in Raisen, which saw a mob shooting and killing a tribal youth in the Khimaria Pauri village on the day of Holi, shops and houses belonging to the accused were destroyed by bulldozers in a similar fashion.
The entrance of bulldozers into the political discourse was by and large introduced ahead of UP elections. The symbol, initially used by the Samajwadi Party against BJP, was embraced by the latter, eventually promoting it as its anti-criminal, pro-development stance as the party's roadmap in the state. In Madhya Pradesh, the move has already been criticised by Congress, which has accused the Shivraj Chouhan government of hiding behind the theme and not implementing the law and order measures across Madhya Pradesh.
"Will women in the state gain security after the 'bulldozer mama' posters and banners? BJP government should answer this question, just like MLA Rameshwar Sharma should answer whether he feels he is stopping rapes in his constituency", Congress Madhya Pradesh spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta said on Tuesday. "This government has completely failed in providing security to women. The Congress challenges Shivraj Chouhan to take action against scammers roaming under his nose every single day if he truly feels he is against corruption and crime", he asserted.
