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Why ‘Bulldozer baba’ Yogi Adityanath keeps using the machine for law and order

The UP government has reshaped the meaning of the bulldozer — it is a ruthless symbol of state administration now.

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The Yogi Adityanath government has reinvented the bulldozer in Uttar Pradesh. It was always a terrifying instrument that represented demolition – dhwastvinash. But now it is a political symbol – this has reframed and reshaped its use and meaning. It is no longer just an instrument for building or road construction. It is an instrument of State administration.

In a dhaba on the Allahabad-Varanasi highway, a truck driver sits on a khat and sings, “Jab baba ke bulldozer chamak ke chale…(when baba’s bulldozer starts…).” I heard the same song being played by a DJ during marriage party and people were merrily dancing to the tune. It’s also viral on YouTube, and social media is filled with songs about Bulldozer Baba that gets lakhs of views.

Who is Bulldozer Baba? None other than Yogi Adityanath.


Also read: ‘Action begins’, ‘bulldozers roll’ – TV news treated razing of a family home like a film shoot


Law and order

The bulldozer is being increasingly used as an agency to maintain law and order in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, the police was the State apparatus that was at the forefront of maintaining law and order. Now, the bulldozer, in the hands of the city development authorities and backed by police, has emerged as the instrument of choice. Last week after the violent protests in Prayagraj, the bulldozers were brought in again. And UP deputy CM Brajesh Pathak has said it will continue to be used “against troublemakers”.

Despite its oppressive real images, it is being proposed by the Adityanath administration as an instrument of maintaining law and order. But does it work? During our fieldwork in the run-up to the assembly election, a large section of the public—especially from marginalised communities, poor and middle-class Hindu and students—told us that they see the bulldozer as something that assures them suraksha (security and safety). It is because the bulldozer has zero tolerance for musclemen, mafias, land-grabbers and gundas. Also, many of us perceive it to be very effective against forces who are illegally accumulating money and investing it in creating communal tension in society. Some of us think that it is being used against people of a specific community, but it is also being used against land-grabbers and real estate mafias of all communities by the Yogi government.


Also read: To the right of Yogi, there’s only an abyss. Modi should rein in BJP’s bigots


Bulldozer baba has won

We know that most of the time, the media pick up the cases that fit in their ready-made simplistic narrative of what’s happening in UP. In this narrative structure, one may find an attempt to paint bulldozers with a communal brush.

What the media doesn’t realise is that there is anger among common people against those people who acquired power and money through the use of violence, corruption and political connections. The bulldozer appears as immediate justice for the miscreants by giving them ruthless punishment.

One of the popular songs on Yogi Adityanath’s version of the bulldozer describes why people like it. It says that when the bulldozer comes, the bad elements of society hide, and the powerful and the musclemen run away.

It is true that the bulldozer looks ugly, ruthless, and like it has no heart, but there is a man behind it who is using the machine to send a message. Yogi Adityanath created this dual image of the bulldozer. And it is obvious from his recent election victory that it resonated with several people in Uttar Pradesh. A folk song goes: ‘Jeet gaye Baba bulldozer wala.’ Bulldozer baba has won.

The author is Professor and Director at the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. He tweets @poetbadri. Views are personal.

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