“Nafrat ke Bazar Mein Mohabbat Ki Dukaan” leave 400 Muslims homeless in Karnataka.

When Rahul Gandhi speaks of “nafrat ke bazar mein mohabbat ki dukaan”, he invokes a powerful moral vision — one that promises compassion over cruelty, justice over vendetta, and constitutionalism over coercion. It is a line that resonated with millions who were exhausted by the politics of hate and bulldozers.

But today, in Karnataka, under a Congress-led government, that very promise stands dangerously hollow.

The bulldozing of Muslim localities such as Faqir Colony and Waseem Layout in Bengaluru exposes a troubling contradiction. What was once criticised as “bulldozer raj” under the BJP has now been normalised under a government that claims to stand for secularism and social justice. When bulldozers flatten homes before courts hear pleas, when entire communities are treated as encroachments rather than citizens, the question becomes unavoidable: Is the Congress governing differently, or merely governing more quietly?