On December 13, the district administration in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam sent bulldozers to demolish three “illegal brick kilns” in the area. They were being run without permits and severely polluting the environment, officials said.

Standing in their way was the National Conference legislator from Chadoora, Ali Mohammad Dar.

Dar told Scroll that he had tried to reach a compromise. “I assured the officials that the owners will sign an affidavit promising they would not run the kilns without registering the kilns,” the 67-year-old said.

He argued that it was not fair to target the kilns when they had come up in the first place as a result of corrupt officials looking the other way.

Dar’s requests to the officials were brushed aside. A video of him from the day shows the elderly legislator being surrounded by men in uniform, as he grapples with a couple of police personnel who push him away from the site of the demolition.

Moments after the video was taken, Dar fainted and had to be hospitalised.

The next day, Dar lodged a police complaint against the Chadoora subdivisional magistrate for what he described as “humiliation” and “disrespect” of an elected representative.

The images of Dar being roughed up were not an aberration, several legislators told Scroll. It underlined the powerlessness...

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