Purge of secularism
BY ZIYA US SALAM
FEBRUARY 26, 2020, 10:30 a.m. Outside the Maujpur Metro station nearKabirNagar, there is not a soul on the road. No vehicular traffic, no pedestrians, just a long row of policemen with stern visages, holding guns and batons. By the side of the road are burnt remains of a motorcycle and a car and a thousand pieces of wood, cardboard, tyres, iron railings and concrete lattice screens, some of them still smouldering. They have probably been dumped aside to allow for the free movement of traffic, of which there is none. Fear hangs thick in the air. I am on my way to Gokulpuri, a little more than a kilometre away, but the billows of smoke visible in the sky from Kabir Nagar portend disaster. As one black billow rises and fades into the sky, another makes its appearance. It goes on and on endlessly. Rows of tyre shops have been set afire in Gokulpuri, as I discover half an hour later.
This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
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Scapegoating China
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New worries
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No love lost for labour
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Capital's Malthusian moment
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Understanding migration
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Waiting for Jabalpur moment
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An empty package
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