Demolition drive at Delhi''s Turkman Gate reminder of Emergency horrors: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 7 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday termed the demolition drive at Turkman Gate in the national capital as "deeply disturbing" and a "grim reminder of the horrors of the Emergency".

Vijayan was referring to the anti-encroachment drive near the Faiz-e-Elahi mosque in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan area on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday that has triggered violence as many people pelted stones at police personnel.

Trouble brewed when a social media post claimed the mosque, opposite the Turkman Gate, was being demolished during the anti-encroachment drive, and people started gathering there.

Vijayan, in a post on social media platform 'X', said that uprooting people in the dead of night was not justice, "but the BJP government’s execution of the divisive ideology of the Sangh Parivar".

"The demolition drive at Turkman Gate is deeply disturbing and a grim reminder of the horrors of the Emergency..." "This Bulldozer Raj targeting minorities and the marginalised must be resisted by all secular, democratic forces. We cannot allow history's darkest chapter to repeat," he said. PTI HMP SA