PM's 'tone deaf' visit to JCB factory criticised after firm leads demolition of Muslim housing

Words by ITV News Journalist Sanjay Jha

Boris Johnson's visit to a JCB factory in the western Indian state of Gujarat on the first day of his Indian trip has been dubbed "tone deaf" after using one of the firms bulldozers.

The firm has come under fire in recent weeks after their heavy machinery has been used to demolish housing owned by low-income Muslim residents.

Protests in the region have been met with 'bulldozer justice' orchestrated by Indian authorities.

Shop owners have had to search through the rubble of their own shop fronts to collect belongings after JCB bulldozers have levelled buildings.

Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have risen across India in the past 10 days, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions and demolition of a number of properties, many belonging to Muslims, in another state last week.The Indian Supreme Court halted the demolitions on Wednesday, days after communal violence shook the capital and saw dozens arrested.

They stopped the bulldozers just outside the entrance of a Hindu temple, about 50 metres (160 feet) from the mosque, and began to retreat, spurring outrage from Muslim residents who said they were being targeted.

Civil society members are now calling on Boris Johnson to speak about the incidents and how JCB equipment is being used to level Muslim homes.

Editor of Hardnews magazine in India tweeted: "What a bulldozer of an irony. British PM Boris Johnson will inaugurate the JCB plant in Halol that will manufacture bulldozers on a day when Supreme Court is taking cognisance of the constitutional limits of the administration's use of the machine."

 An MP from the ruling BJP Narasimha Rao, called JCB a "Jihad Control Board."

Monk turned politician, Yogi Adityanath, the first minister of India's biggest Province Uttar Pradesh was the first to openly initiate "bulldozer justice", wherein he would seize or bulldoze the properties of the agitators. 

At some election rallies, Yogi also mentioned 'bulldozers taking rest'. 

However he warned the bulldozers would be in action once again after elections. 

In some rallies, bulldozers were seen parked at the venue of Adityanath's public meetings.

After Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are said to have picked up a playbook of these tactics, and the bulldozer has become the go-to tool to deal with law offenders. 

Nine bulldozers rolled into an area in north-west New Delhi, which had been hit by communal violence several days earlier.

They set about razing parts of several structures, including the exterior gate of a mosque as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled civic body. 

Residents saw their homes being torn down and their source of livelihoods being completely destroyed.