[People talking - Music]
It was ready, but the bulldozers destroyed it.
They didn't give us the time - just destroyed it and left. We suffered a lot of losses.
[music]
My house is destroyed. I can't repair it. I was already drowning in debt.
[music]
They got the stay orders even before they started the demolition.
But the officials denied receiving any notice.
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I have the challan [tax receipt]. I even have one from 2006.
My shop was legal and never removed from the sidewalk.
This is the first time my shop was destroyed.
[music - sound of kids playing]
What changed in the past few years ...
... that everything changed? We used to live like brothers and sisters.
But today everything became complicated.
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What can we ask the government? We have lost hope that the government or anyone will help us.
[music]
After the riots of 16th in Jahangirpuri, Delhi MCD gave an order to demolish illegal encroachments there.
The fact is that only 24% of people in Delhi live in authorized colonies.
The decision to carry this out in Jahangirpuri, despite the Supreme Court orders, raises questions about the intention of the government.
The bulldozer started demolishing my shop.
My wife told them not to destroy our shop. It is our livelihood.
They did not listen. They broke everything and took it away.
My kids were trying to pick things up - they did not let them do it.
They took away the 3 fridges from my shop. And the iron stall as well.
I have a chicken fry shop. I had to take a loan to finance it.
I repay every 18th. I could not repay this month because of the riot.
<They took away my stall. I am now distraught.
I won't get another loan either. I had taken the 75,000 loans for 2 years.
I repay Rs. 3,750 every month.
We used to struggle to repay that somehow after our food expenses.
I don't have work now. I don't know how to repay my loan.
I thought I would earn something and save some money - but I cannot even repair my home that was destroyed.
I was already drowning in debt - now it is worse.
I had a mobile shop and sold cigarettes and beedis. It was destroyed.
I lost Rs.100,000.
They started demolishing from Kushal cinema towards the mosque.
They broke the mosque and the shops as well.
After that, they broke my shop. Then when they reached the temple.
then they said they got the order from Supreme Court and left.
When I told them this - they dragged me all the way to Ramlila Chowk.
When they dragged me to the Ramlila Chowk, a lot of reporters started asking me questions.
When I told them the same thing there as well - they said leave him.
[Were you beaten up?] Yes, they dragged me, pushed me, and took me there.
[Where were you injured?] My eyes and my body.
I have injuries everywhere. There were 25-30 policemen who did this.
When the rally came here, we hurriedly put everything inside. It is still inside since then.
After that, without informing us, despite the Supreme Court orders, they destroyed everything - from here to the temple.
They took this action despite the Supreme Court order.
We lost a lot. There are a lot of upheavals, and the shop itself is closed.
Because of this action, we faced losses.
Everyone who lives around us is a Muslim. In the 40 years, we've lived together, we did not even have a minor quarrel.
I was at home and heard noises. So I peeped from my window and saw the vehicles coming.
They started breaking the stall. I ran there crying and begging them to stop.
I even asked them in the morning.
They said they were there to just pick up the garbage and wouldn't damage our stalls.
All my belongings are scattered. They took my fridge away. I told them to at least leave that.
Just let me take my belongings. I am not fighting. They did not let me pick up my belongings.
They took everything. I had taken a loan to put up the stall and buy a fridge.
I have to repay Rs. 12000 every month. How can I repay that now?
I haven't got anything left now. They took everything. The bottles from the fridge, when we were picking them up, it injured his leg.
We are here for 20-30 years. I am 28 years old - I was born here.
illegal or legal doesn't mean anything. Even if it was illegal, there was no notice from the court.
They came and broke everything. The riots were due to the failure of the government.
We don't have work. In addition, they destroyed the front. And to add to that prices are sky-high.
They're intent on giving us losses upon losses, insults upon injuries.
I have lost Rs. 300,000 to Rs. 400000. Since 2006, my stall was never moved or demolished.
I have a certificate from MCD that if I display it, no one will touch or remove my stall.
I have had that since 2006 here.
This is a copy of the certificate from 2006.
And 2 years ago MCD said they'd give a certificate if we have a roadside stall.
If you have this certificate, your stall will not be demolished or moved.
That is why my stall was never moved or demolished till today.
This is the first time my stall was broken. We never even got a chance to talk or show them the proof.
There were so many policemen surrounding us and stopping us that we could not say anything. We did not appeal. We have no one to speak on our behalf.
Nobody speaks up for the poor. I have lost hope.
We go to work at 7 AM to earn and don't know if we can get 10 rupees by afternoon.
Even a loss of Rs. 2000 is a big loss for us.
No one will compensate us. And the shop is closed.
And everything is closed here, not even the customers are here now. We are overwhelmed with problems.
The notice came, but they did not let us go there to remove our belongings. They had camped out where my stall was.
When I went to get my stuff, they stopped me. Then they took everything with them.
Everything was in my stall. It was an iron one and everything - stove, utensils, pans, spices, were inside it.
They took everything with them.
Is this the way? We found out on the morning news that they were bringing in the bulldozers.
Without any ultimatum or warrant, they just broke everything. They did not even honor the Supreme Court order.
This [Hanuman Jayanti] rally that was taken out and the violence that took place because of that.
The stoning and the subsequent police actions have inconvenienced everyone.
All the other [Hindu] shops are open, but all our [Muslim] shops have shut down.
We lost our livelihood - without anyone informing us. There is no one to stop them.
Where shall we go? No one listens to us. If someone says something, they get arrested. People are scared to speak out.
They had the stay order [from Supreme Court] even before they started demolishing the first shop.
But they lied that they did not have any notice. They even jammed all the networks and mobiles stopped working.
Everything was blacked out. They did whatever they wanted.
We are exhausted. The riots were instigated by outsiders.
The locals here are daily wage earners. They eat whatever they can earn day to day.
There are no savings. We already ate up our savings.
The policemen did not get moved by my crying and begging them.
[Did you try to show them your certificate?]
They did not listen to us. They did not let my husband get out. They threatened to arrest him if he set foot outside.
They started shouting at me and asked me to go inside.
They threatened to run the bulldozer over me.
I told them you've destroyed the stall, at least let me pick up my belongings. They refused.
I want a new stall it will cost me 40000 and the utensils another 20000.
I had a sales and income of 7000 to 8000. That is gone now. And the rest is damaged.
We had lots of losses. All our stuff was scattered everywhere.
I lost whatever 1000 I could earn as well as this.
What can we ask the government? We have lost hope in government - no one will help us.
I didn't like the scrap work I used to do earlier. So I took a loan to start this work.
Because of the pandemic lockdown - everything was shut. Afterward, we were just starting and now these riots have caused more trouble.
If everyone gets together to do something, we'll join as well. But alone, no one will even hear us.
There is a Muslim woman in Jahangirpuri who tutors students from all religions.
Her students were also with her on the day the riots took place in Jahangirpuri.
The kids came that day as well. I do two shifts, 10 AM and noon.
The students came then and keep coming.
No one's parents stopped them from coming.
They did not even think that there was a Hindu-Muslim issue here.
They did not mix different events. They know that all Muslims are not the same.
The kids are still coming. And when they are here, there is no cause for worry, my home environment is good.
They did not think that the teacher's nature would change after the riots.
that I would take out my frustration about the treatment of Muslims on the kids.
There was no such thing as that.
We've been living here for 40-45 years. My age is 33 years.
I've been teaching since 6-7 months. I'd stopped teaching after my marriage.
Before marriage, I coached kids here for 10 years.
The area where I live has mostly people from the Hindu community.
We are the only Muslim family here. But we were never discriminated against - we lived as one community.
We used to be together while eating and living and we would be in each other's time of need.
My question is what has happened since a few years that everything changed. I feel like crying.
We were like brothers and sisters - that has become too complicated now.
[Music]