Those in power have a duty to safeguard our streets. And they seem to have found an answer in the bulldozer, which imposes a civil penalty that drastically raises the cost of participating in street violence

A bulldozer demolishes the construction of the Kanpur violence chief accused Hayat Zafar Hashmi's aide. ANI

Is the bulldozer destroying the Indian Constitution? No, it is not. Do not listen to the activists. They are only angry because they know that the bulldozer works. They wanted an Indian state that was paralysed. They wanted to see a democratically elected government that is helpless. They wanted a silent majority whose votes no longer matter. The bulldozer is a threat to that dream.

How should the Indian state have responded to the outburst of violence that swept across our streets last Friday? There can be no doubt that this was a coordinated attack. Crowds of stone-pelters in several cities, across nearly half a dozen states, all at the same time. In each case, they knew for instance that they had to place minors in front, making it even more difficult for the police to respond. In other words, somebody has been coaching these people on the tactics of street violence.

In India, rioting is not new. But the use of large-scale coordinated violence by political pressure groups, essentially trying to rule the republic through the streets, has now been repeated several times since the 2019 general elections. We saw this during the anti-CAA protests, then the so-called farmer protests, and again over the last one week. Our police personnel, who are outnumbered, underfunded and with little training, do not know what to do. The judicial system is too slow, and too backed up to act as a deterrent, or provide justice within a reasonable time frame. In any case, it is nearly impossible to convict individuals in a crowd. How do you prove who threw which stone?

They have figured out that street violence works. And they are going to use it again and again. To twist a popular line from a recently released movie, “Sarkar kisi ki bhi ho, sadak to unki hai.”

For the moment, the Indian state, or at least governments in BJP-ruled states, appear to have found the answer in the bulldozer. Identify those accused of rioting, their homes and then go over their property documents with a fine toothed comb. If there are any discrepancies found, which is almost always the case, demolish them. It works because municipal laws are too confusing, open to interpretation and resolution of disputes takes too long. In other words, it is a way for the state to exploit the same weaknesses in the system that makes rioters believe they will never face punishment. And by all accounts, the general public is cheering this new approach. Towards the end, the BJP turned the Uttar Pradesh elections into a virtual referendum on the bulldozer, and won.

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The activist class is furious. The bulldozer is of course big, powerful and easy to demonise. They say India is going fascist. But they would have said that anyway, no matter what the Indian state actually did. For instance, tear gas and water cannons are standard instruments of crowd control, used all over the world, from Germany and Switzerland to France, Belgium and Italy. But when they were used during so-called farmer protests, they said that was fascist too. Anything that the Indian government does is a human rights violation, just because the activists say so.

With regards to the bulldozer, they are twisting facts in at least two ways. For one, they make it appear as if the government has violated the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. How can you demolish somebody’s house? Have they been convicted by a court of law? No, but if you are asking this question, it means that you have mixed up civil cases with criminal cases. The bulldozer imposes a civil penalty, not a criminal one. Civil cases do not operate in terms of “guilty” or “innocent,” but simply a dispute between parties. In civil cases, there is no such thing as “conviction” and therefore no such thing as a presumption of innocence. Accordingly, the burden of proof is much lower than in criminal court. So which legal principle has been violated?

Second, it is common all across the world for governments to claim civil damages when criminal prosecution is difficult. I am not talking about countries in the Arab world, which have recently emerged as the ironic heroes of Indian liberalism. I am talking about democratic countries. In America, this is known as civil forfeiture. Instead of charging a person with a crime, law enforcement seizes assets or items that might have been used in committing the crime. The police will take possession of houses, boats, cars and cash that gangs or drug mafia might use. Again, this is easier, because the burden of proof in civil cases is much lighter than in criminal cases. Because property does not have the same rights as people do.

It is difficult to convict someone for being involved in gang violence. Just as it would be difficult to convict someone who is pelting stones as part of a mob. That is why the United States uses civil forfeiture to break the power of organised crime. What is wrong if the government in, say, Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh uses the same technique of applying civil penalties against rioters?

Does anyone remember what happened in Canada earlier this year? A group of truckers blocked the roads and a few key bridges, disrupting trade between the US and Canada. The Canadian government reacted swiftly, imposing a national emergency. The bank accounts of the truckers were frozen. They were locked out of their life’s savings, unable to pay bills or make mortgage payments, which could lead to banks taking away their homes and cars. They were not even allowed to buy fuel to keep themselves warm in Canada’s brutal winter. Even those who had contributed to online fundraisers to support the protesters were threatened with a similar seizure of assets. At one point, local authorities in the Canadian capital of Ottawa even threatened to take away minor children from parents who had been at the protest.

The pressure worked. The protest was broken up within a week. And nobody in the global media, or the activist class, dared to say that the Canadian government is authoritarian. You will find Canada at the top or near the top of all supposed indexes on freedom, human rights and civil liberties. It is only “fascist” when Uttar Pradesh does it. Apparently, governments in non-Western countries do not have the right to safeguard their streets. We must surrender our streets to mob violence, and live by the whims of the activist class.

Why this hypocrisy? At the root of this is a common misunderstanding of what “activism” really is. We often think of an “activist” as an individual who is fighting for the underprivileged in some way. While a handful of folks might indeed be fighting for a better world, the exact opposite is true for the vast majority of organised activism. The real purpose of organised activism is to erect barriers to protect privileged spaces. To get anything done, you have to go over the heads of lawyers, civil society groups and their media contacts who could tie you down with legal troubles or destroy your reputation. Who can pay these additional costs? It is those who have privilege. At first glance, this may seem like a shakedown of the wealthy, but it really is not. These costs serve as an entry barrier that keeps the insiders in charge, making it difficult for outsiders to challenge them. The relationship between the activist class and the privileged is not one of extortion, but of cooperation.

This is why wealthy Western governments maintain a large activist class. It allows them to pursue their geopolitical interests, as well as safeguard their own sovereignty. This is why Canada can get away with imposing a national emergency and seizing bank accounts of protesters. In India, the bulldozers, tear gas and even water cannons are likely to get bogged down by accusations of “fascism”. The activist class is also how “old power” protects itself from the onslaught of “new power”. Anyone with any sense of Indian politics can see that governments run by parties of the old “liberal” establishment are subject to much less scrutiny than a BJP government.

In the end, it is the political class, and not the activist class, that has to answer to the people of India. Those in power have a duty to safeguard our streets. And they seem to have found an answer in the bulldozer, which imposes a civil penalty that drastically raises the cost of participating in street violence. The state cannot let itself be bullied, for now.

The writer is an author and columnist. He tweets @AbhishBanerj. Views expressed are personal.

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