As communal clashes broke out on July 31 during Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Brijmandal Jalabhishek Yatra, the lives of Ravinder Phogat of Hisar, and his two friends travelling through Nuh got intertwined with that of a local resident, Anish. He gave the trio shelter, offered food, words of comfort, and then escorted them to safety. Six days later, bulldozers tore into Mr. Anish’s house. Mr. Phogat, the grateful guest, made frantic calls to the police to attest that it was a place they took refuge in, not one from which stones were pelted. But the damage had been done. “Anish did not have even 1% involvement,” rued the Hisar native.
Mr. Anish’s house faces the Gurugram-Alwar National Highway; a road leading from the highway to the right of his house was used by devotees to reach the Shiv temple in Nalhar two km away. Adjacent to a ceramic tiles showroom in Khedla village, Mr. Anish’s house was at the receiving end of the local administration’s demolition drive targeting premises that were allegedly used by rioters to attack the religious procession.
While asserting that action will be taken in any case registered in connection with the Nuh violence, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had said on August 4 that demolitions could also be part of the action taken against those involved: “Ilaaj mein bulldozer bhi ek karavayi hai [Bulldozer is also part of the remedial action].”
