No bias charges in NJ India Day Parade bulldozer incident
Prosecutor says it was “properly reported and classified as a bias incident” but finds insufficient cause for charge
Prosecutors in New Jersey have declined to file a bias intimidation charge over the appearance of a bulldozer at the annual India Day Parade in Edison in August after an investigation found insufficient cause.
An investigation into a bulldozer that appeared at the annual India Day Parade in Edison in August has determined there is not enough evidence to support a bias intimidation charge, NJ.com reported citing the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Read: Indian Business Association apologizes for bulldozer at Edison India Day Parade (September 1, 2022)
The incident was “properly reported and classified as a bias incident,” but the investigation did not reach the threshold for criminal charges, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department said in a joint press release.
The bulldozer was adorned with signs and slogans expressing support for the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, both members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The bulldozer was seen as symbolizing the demolition of Muslim properties in India.
The New Jersey Council on American-Islamic Relations thanked the prosecutor’s office for investigating the incident during the Aug 14 parade and welcomed their decision to classify it as a “bias incident,” in a statement on Jan 27.
The Edison Police Department received numerous reports concerning the bulldozer float. “The complainants reported that the float was an offensive and Islamophobic endorsement of the divisive practice of using heavy machinery to demolish homes of alleged criminals, protestors, and rioters in India,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.
“This brand of ‘bulldozer politics’ has been criticized as disproportionately targeting religious-minority communities in India,” it said. Although there was insufficient cause for charges, the prosecutor’s office reiterated “its stance against hate in all forms.”
The Edison India Day Parade bias incident is an example Hindutva, a growing form of anti-Muslim bigotry in New Jersey, CAIR-NJ spokeswoman Dina Sayedahmed was cited as saying.
Read: Edison mayor lambasts use of bulldozer at India Day Parade (August 24, 2022)
“Moving forward, CAIR-NJ will continue its efforts to educate and inform the general public and elected officials about the threat that Hindutva poses to Muslims in New Jersey and India,” she added,
Two weeks after the bulldozer incident, the Indian Business Association, the organizer of the India Day Parade in Edison had issued an apology amid a public uproar.
In a letter to Edison Mayor Samip “Sam” Joshi and Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac, IBA president Chandrakant Patel said the organization is sorry for “certain aspects” of the parade.
These “reflected poorly on our organization and offended the Indian American minority groups, especially Muslims, from the local area and across the state and country.”
Patel also pledged on behalf of the IBA that it will “not allow these symbols in the future and that it will work with all different groups of South Asian heritage to ensure that our parade remains the best in the state.”
