Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday, 5 September publicly criticised the Uttar Pradesh government's ongoing demolition of mosques it has declared illegal, including the razing of a mosque inside the Saharanpur Collectorate complex, and called on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to immediately stop such actions and adopt due process instead.

What Mayawati Said

Posting on social media platform X, the BSP supremo described the state government's daily declarations of mosques as illegal — followed swiftly by demolitions — as 'not right.' She urged the administration to pursue alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms rather than demolitions.

'The ongoing government campaign in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, including the mosque in Saharanpur district, which daily declares mosques illegal in great haste and proceeds to demolish them, is not right. The government should immediately halt this and certainly adopt other measures to resolve the issue in order to avoid such negative situations,' she said.

Mayawati further stressed that a constitutional, secular government bears a duty to protect the religious sites of all communities. 'In the Islamic faith, mosques are a primary and integral part of daily worship, indeed offering prayers several times a day in congregation. Keeping this in mind and in accordance with Indian traditions, it is essential to accord them respect in the interest of the nation and the broader public good,' she added.

On Demolitions of Accused Persons' Homes

The BSP chief also addressed the broader pattern of demolishing the residences of accused individuals — a practice critics have termed 'bulldozer justice.' She said such actions, carried out without strict adherence to rules and laws, amounted to collective punishment of entire families who are rendered homeless. She held up the conduct of past BSP governments — which she described as upholding 'the rule of law through law' — as the appropriate standard.

Call for Judicial Attention

Mayawati called on the judiciary as well as the executive to take note of the issue. 'It would be appropriate for not only the government but also the honourable judiciary to pay due attention to this matter,' she said, while also appealing to all communities to maintain a harmonious environment.

The Saharanpur Demolition and Political Fallout

The immediate trigger was the demolition on Saturday of a mosque located within the Saharanpur Collectorate complex, carried out by the local administration after a court rejected the Muslim side's appeal. Samajwadi Party (SP) Member of Parliament Iqra Hasan, who had planned to travel to Saharanpur that morning, was placed under house arrest before she could leave; a large police contingent was reportedly deployed outside her residence.

Congress MP Imran Masood contested the legal basis of the demolition, arguing that revenue records — Khasra documents — still list the land in the names of Waheed Khan and Yakub Khan, within whose zamindari the mosque was built. 'The mosque is registered with the Waqf Board, but you did not make the Waqf Board a party,' he said, adding that the mosque had stood for '70 to 80 years' and that the appeal process had been concluded within a single month without adequate time for a higher-court challenge. 'It is our fundamental right to raise this issue before a higher court, but you did not give us any time,' Masood said.

The development has sharply intensified the political debate across western Uttar Pradesh, with opposition parties aligning against what they characterise as constitutionally dubious demolition drives ahead of the state's next electoral cycle.