DNA Special: What is happening in Uttarakhand’s Devbhoomi? Controversy erupts on demolition of religious places

Should religious places be built on land which has been illegally acquired? If your answer is no, then you must also believe that these illegally built religious places should be removed since it is not a matter of religion or faith but a legal issue. Something similar of this sort is now happening in Devbhoomi, Uttarakhand.

Government bulldozers are being run on the land of Uttarakhand’s Devbhoomi, where religious places were built by occupying government land. This has also sparked a major political war in Uttarakhand, where politicians are playing with people’s faith to spark turmoil.

 In Uttarakhand, the work of identifying and demolishing illegal religious places built on encroached land since April 20 is in progress. Till May 12, 325 illegal religious places have been demolished and about 72 hectares of government land has been freed from encroachment.

Some people are looking at this campaign of the Uttarakhand government through the prism of religion and they are saying that bulldozers are running only on the tombs targeting a particular religion. Ironically, many well-known news channels are also fuelling this propaganda. Some are calling this campaign a mission to wipe out Mazar Jihad, while some are calling it an act of coercion on the religious places of Muslims.

The real truth is that government bulldozers are running on illegal religious places built on government land in Uttarakhand. It is not against any particular religion. Rather, it is going according to the law. As of May 12, 294 illegally built mazaras have been demolished in Uttarakhand by occupying government land and 31 temples have also been demolished. Notices have also been sent to two gurdwaras.

In fact, in the year 2006, an English newspaper reported that 1200 temples and 260 mosques and Mazars in Gujarat had illegally encroached on public places, due to which the common people were facing problems. Taking cognizance of this news, the Ahmedabad High Court ordered the Gujarat government to remove illegal religious places without any discrimination.

Now you must be wondering what the Gujarat High Court's decision has to do with the action of demolishing religious places in Uttarakhand. On the order of the Ahmedabad High Court, the then Central Government went to the Supreme Court. And then in September 2009, the Supreme Court made the cases of illegal religious places nationwide instead of limiting them to Gujarat.

The Supreme Court further issued an order that all religious places which have been constructed on public property in the country on government land, parks, roads, or public places will be removed by the government as soon as possible.

The Supreme Court order clearly mentions that all such illegally built religious places will be demolished, but many are terming the demolition drive in Uttarakhand as illegal and targeted, with religious politics erupting in the state.