The demolition in the Kosmi village of Madhya Pradesh’s Budhni assembly constituency on Sunday drew an angry response from Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, even as forest authorities defended the operation as the removal of illegal huts built after a government plantation was destroyed. Twelve tribal homes demolished, crops allegedly destroyed and a Union minister sitting with grieving families against an action carried out under his own party’s state government.
Kosmi falls within his parliamentary constituency, Vidisha, and Budhni is the Assembly seat he represented for years as the chief minister. “Homes where the joyful sounds of children echoed until the morning are now filled with their screams.
“The limits of oppression and injustice have been crossed in my constituency,” Chouhan, a four-time Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said after meeting the affected families. Women are weeping and beating their chests in grief,” he said after the Forest Development Corporation carried out the demolition in the afternoon. Women broke down when Shivraj, popularly called “mama” (maternal uncle) arrived at the village, where families from the Barela tribal community said they have lived for years. Forest and district administration officials had attempted similar action earlier, but he had instructed them not to demolish the families’ homes, according to a statement from his office. He also spoke to state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal and said he would raise the matter with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
