Turkman Gate on the Asif Ali Road and the Dujana House near Jama Masjid are only a mile apart. Mid-April 1976 saw the inauguration of the now infamous Dujana House Sterilisation campaign, spearheaded by ‘socialite turned social worker Ruksana Sultana in the Muslim-dominated area

of Dujana House. She persuades the Muslim women of the area to get their husbands sterilised and as the week progresses, one can see street beggars being rounded up to be taken into a basement clinic, from which some never emerge. At Turkman Gate, a feeling of uneasiness starts

creeping upon the residents when they realise the demolition squad would refuse to leave and that their houses were the next target. When some tried to enlist the help of Ruksana Sultana, a close aide of Sanjay Gandhi, Sultana offers support on the condition that they help her

setup a clinic at Turkman Gate, and provide her with 300 sterilisation cases in a week. https://homegrown.co.in/article/28998/the-untold-story-of-the-turkman-gate-massacre-during-indias-emergency

The spreading panic leads to a delegation of local residents approaching the Vice-Chairman of DDA, Jagmohan. When they questioned if the Turkman Gate residents could be resettled into a single colony known as ‘Welcome’ or the nearby colony of Seelampur in East Delhi,

he is said to have replied, ”Do you think we are mad to destroy one Pakistan to create another Pakistan?”

The mounting tension at both the location precipitates as the women in Dujana House start protesting with a burqa-clad woman lying on the ground to prevent a van full of

sterilization victims, who had been collected randomly off the streets. The police intervention leads to arrest of one man as the crowd retaliates with a protest and call for general strike around the entire area including Turkman Gate. When Rukshana Sultana arrives at

Dujana House, she barely escapes the furious local women when suddenly a message from Turkman Gate precipitates the situation - “They are massacring us here at Turkman Gate. Come and help us if you can.”

The relatives and friends of the Dujana House protestors had made a call

for help as well as set the arena for the final confrontation with the police. The scene for the approaching clash has women and children at its centre as they stand on the road, fighting for their homes from being demolished. Sanjay Gandhi is said to be standing on the balcony

of a distant hotel as he watches bulldozers razing through Turkman Gate. The Central Reserve Police Force is kept on standby with arms ready for use with violence erupting when women and children get up to pray.

The sudden movement causes the chief of the Nehru brigade to signal his men to prevent stoning by the people. This is done by the throwing of stones themselves which is met with fierce retaliation as the situation quickly deteriorates with the use of sticks and later tear gas in

the midst of women and children. A person whose identity still remains unknown provokes the police to open fire, which triggers a bloody conflict. Some of them flee to the nearby Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque where they are gassed out, physically and verbally abused. The mosque is heavily

attacked and said to represent an abattoir as the policemen are said to have stolen the cashbox of the Masjid containing thousands of rupees as groups of injured people lay screaming.

The air is filled with screams and tear gas as a desperate crowd throws stones outside on the

streets while new arrivals attack the police from behind, taking over the chowki. The Commissioner of Police orders reinforcements which are armed with bayonets to kill as blood flowed down the Turkman Gate at four in the afternoon. A curfew is finally called at 5.30 as one of

the least-talked, and perhaps, the most shocking part of Turkman Gate massacre comes to fore. Foul-smelling constables indulged in a spree of raping and looting by breaking into the houses of defenceless women whose husbands had either been arrested or fled. The electricity of

the area has been cut off as only the bulldozers traverse through the night, clearing Turkman Gate of the rubble which is taken by trucks and dumped on the Ring Road as a foul smell of stale meat from the rubble tells a story of its own.

Many narratives mention the callousness shown in the demolition and its brutality by running bulldozers over women and children as the old.

Jagmohan Sharma, the former Vice-Chairman of DDA on whose orders Delhi’s ‘beautification’ was undertaken went on to a successful political career as Governor and the Union Development Minister under the BJP Government.

Navin Chawla, who served as the secretary to Delhi’s LG during the Emergency and worked closely with Sanjay Gandhi, was indicted by the Shah Commission for his ‘authoritarian and callous role’ and noted the following about Mr Chawla- “He is unfit to hold any public office which

demands an attitude of fair play and consideration for others.” He went on to become the Chief Election Commissioner of India.

Rukshana Sultana seemed to have fallen into obscurity after the Emergency with no account of any criminal or civil cases being bought against her and

yet, the famous boasting of 13,000 sterilisations in a year lived on. The year of the Shah Commission investigations sees her bemoaning the loss of her rich lifestyle.

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Beyond disgusting.