No Bias Crime Found At India Day Parade: Middlesex Prosecutor

An investigation into a bulldozer float at the annual India Day Parade in Edison has concluded there was not enough evidence to warrant a bias intimidation charge, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.

The Pakistani flag fliew with the American flag at Edison Municipal Building last summer. The mayor said other foreign flags would be flown there to reflect the diversity of the community.
Photo Credit: *Facebook/ Mayor Sam Joshi*

Jon Craig

01/30/2023 11:09 a.m.

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 statement.

On Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, the Edison Police Department received numerous reports concerning a float in the Indian Day Parade on Aug. 14, 2022. The float in question was a bulldozer adorned with signs and slogans expressing support for the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath. Both politicians are members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in India.

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. This brand of “bulldozer politics” has been criticized as disproportionately targeting religious-minority communities in India.

The Prosecutor’s Office determined that sufficient probable cause to charge a violation of the law, more specifically referred to as bias intimidation, did not exist.

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