8-year-old Ananya Yadav considers her schoolbag containing her Hindi, English and “ginti ki” (maths) books, her most treasured possession. It is her dream to become an “IAS adhikari” one day and “protect the country”. So, during a demolition drive in Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh on March 21, when a shed close to where her bag was kept caught fire, she rushed to save it.
A viral video of her running with the bag has sparked the attention of the Supreme Court of India. During a hearing on Tuesday, a Bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan cited the video that is trending on the internet and said that it had “shocked everyone.”
“There is a recent video in which small huts are being demolished by bulldozers. There is a small girl running away from the demolished hut with a clutch of books in her hand. It has shocked everyone,” Justice Bhuyan said.
Why Did Ananya Run Into Fire?
“I returned from school and kept my bag in the chappar (thatched shed), where my mother had tied the animals. (During the demolition), there was a fire in the chappar next to ours, and I immediately thought of my schoolbag and books. My mother tried to stop me, but I broke free and ran,” said Ananya, a student of Class 1 at the Government Primary School, Arai, in an interview with The Indian Express.
“I was afraid my books and bag would get burnt. I went back to my mother afterwards,” she said, adding that she might not get a replacement for her books from the school.
Her Family Concerns
Ananya's grandfather, Ram Milan Yadav (70), told The Indian Express, that the administration had come to demolish about “two biswa” of land, which had been occupied by their family for 50 years.
He admitted that while he and his sons were explaining to the administration that a case was undergoing in the tehsil court, one of the thatched sheds caught fire during the demolition drive.
“Woh video dekh ke bahut neta log aa rahe hain. Kuch samajh mein nahi aa raha (many politicians have visited us since the video went viral; we don’t understand what’s happening),” said Ananya’s father, Abhishek.
Ram Milan Yadav also added, “It was not a big deal until people started approaching us about the video. All we know is that we will continue to fight for our land.”
How Did The Opposition React?
Samajwadi Party chief and opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav took no time in sharing the video, while the Congress sent a delegation to meet the family. However, the officials involved in the demolition drive claimed that neither any residential accommodation nor the shed where Ananya’s bag was kept were touched.
“We served Ram Milan a notice two months ago to clear the encroached land. When we went to clear it, they started protesting. We do not know how one of the thatched structures caught fire, but it was brought under control. Later, one of the structures was demolished, but it was all non-residential,” said Pawan Jaiswal who is the sub-divisional magistrate of Jalalpur.
When asked about the viral video, Jaiswal said, “The structure where the girl ran from was not even touched. It was at a distance from the structure which caught fire.”
He said an FIR has been lodged against the “fake” videos linking the running girl with the demolition drive.
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