Thousands of people who faced the prospect of being left homeless in the middle of the harsh north Indian winter won a major reprieve from the Supreme Court on Thursday as it paused an eviction drive on railway land in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani. With this, the SC has the Uttarakhand High Court order that had cleared the eviction of the people who live in some 4,000 homes after a case that went on for years. The majority of the affected people belong to minority Muslim communities. Many see it as another attempt to try to humiliate the community.
Uttarakhand has a BJP government. It is alleged that selectively minorities are being targeted. Nearly half of the families claim to have a land lease. The area even has four government schools, 11 private schools, a bank, two overhead water tanks, 10 mosques, and four temples, besides shops, built over decades. The national media ran a highly communally charged narrative against the people who were protesting against the eviction notice. The protesters were termed land jihadi by the television channels. Some channels even run shows like Shaheen Bagh Part 2 in Haldwani, trying to give a communal colour to the entire protests. The SC has saved humanity by making it clear that 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight. Hope the Uttarakhand government will work out a solution that is acceptable to all.