NO ONE BLAMELESS IN DELHI VIOLENCE

The death toll in the pro-and anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act violence that broke out last Saturday in parts of northeast Delhi had climbed to 22 by Wednesday afternoon. One of the first to be killed at the hands of an anti-CAA pistol-wielding protester was a 41year-old Delhi Police head constable. At least three other Delhi Police personnel were doused with acid thrown from a terrace by the miscreants in one of the poor colonies torn by communal violence which came to a head on Monday when President Trump landed in India. Neither side was innocent. But to blame the police is only partially correct. Wild and uninformed criticism of its handling of anti-CAA protests in mid-December had enmeshed it in various court-directed inquiries, forcing it on the back foot. You cannot expect to demoralise the police and then expect it to fight goons with its hands tied behind its back. Until things turned really ugly on Tuesday, the police lacked the will, direction and, above all, leadership, to quell the riots. It stood by even as the armed marauders on either side indulged in wanton acts of lawlessness, torching public and private property, killing each other and generally inciting religious hatred against one another. A number of journalists too became victims at the hands of the ruffians. It was a free-for-all in several low-income colonies with mixed population with some dominated by one or the other religious group. Patience was running out already with the more than two- month old blockade of a major artery which daily, inconveniences thousands of wage-earners commuting between Delhi and NOIDA. On the eve of the Trump visit, the Shaheen Bagh supporters occupied yet another thoroughfare. At this stage, Kapil Mishra, a local BJP leader, issued a warning to the Delhi Police to clear the Shaheen Bagh-II blockade within three days or be prepared for forcible clearance by his supporters. Within hours, stone-pelting mobs on both sides indulged in wanton acts of vandalism and violence. Trump’s visit had occupied senior police brass and a large chunk of constabulary on security and traffic duty while the inadequate force detailed for the sensitive areas failed to cope with the worsening situation. Without doubt, the central government, which controls the Delhi Police, was to blame for allowing anti-CAA protesters to occupy a busy thoroughfare indefinitely. It probably did so with a view to whip up public passions during the Delhi assembly poll. Chief Minister Kejriwal, meanwhile, sits on the fence even as his Muslim MLAs, who have won with very large margins from the heart of the anti-CAA clusters, instigate violence. Admittedly, the courts too were approached by rival activists to break the Shaheen Bagh logjam. On Wednesday too, the apex court refrained from issuing a firm and just order against the continued occupation of public roads while upholding citizens’ right to protest at designated sites meant for such sit-ins. Instead, it deferred the hearing till after Holi. Given the naked dance of death on the capital’s streets, the court was expected to be less squeamish about lifting the more than two month old Shaheen Bagh blockade, but so loud and shrill is the small leftist-secular group that even the Supreme Court treads gingerly in according public order and convenience priority over motivated partisan protest by a section of the people.

For, the fact is that CAA was passed with an overwhelming support in Parliament. It stands as the law of the land unless it is nixed by the apex court for being unconstitutional or till it is abrogated by another government commanding majority in Parliament. Till then, it is an affront to the same Constitution which protesters in their naivety flaunt as their guiding document. A deeper conspiracy to mislead Dalits by displaying photographs of Ambedkar at the sites of anti-CAA protests echoes an old ISI plot to rend the Indian society apart by sowing suspicion and distrust among Sikhs and Dalits on the one side and the Hindus on the other. Unfortunately, short-term interests overwhelm our politicians who knowingly or unknowingly refuse to see the deeper conspiracies afoot in the nation-wide protests orchestrated by Islamic organizations to carve up the country into hostile religious blocks. Meanwhile, peace and communal harmony must be restored at the earliest. And for this the police needs to be given a free hand to deal sternly against mischief-makers whosoever he or she may be. The mayhem triggered by Shaheen Bagh cannot be allowed to go on endlessly.