Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday canceled his visit to Thiruvananthapuram. The decision to cancel the yatra is against the backdrop of the ongoing violence in north-east Delhi, in which 13 people have died so far. The Union Home Ministry, however, did not give any reason for the change in Amit Shah’s schedule for the day.
Amit Shah spent most of Monday in Gujarat in connection with US President Donald Trump’s visit to Ahmedabad. He returned to Delhi in the late evening of Monday and held a late-night meeting with the top officials of the late-night security establishment.
“The Home Minister was to reach Delhi late last night. However, the special flight took off hours before the scheduled departure, ”a senior MHA official did not name.
On Tuesday afternoon, he again reviewed the situation with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik. This time, he invited Delhi politicians, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, to bring him on board with efforts to make joint efforts. In this meeting, Kejriwal reported feedback from MPs from north-east Delhi of less than the adequate presence of policemen. And the police officers on the ground, Kejriwal complained, were often not equipped or empowered to make decisions and appeared to be awaiting instructions from superiors.
Amit Shah held all political parties responsible for working towards “peace committees” involving eminent citizens and political party representatives to reach out to people in the violence-affected parts and neighboring areas.
The Union Home Ministry said in a statement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also asked all “political parties to avoid provocative speeches and statements.”
Delhi’s borders with the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have been under surveillance for the last three days and the Delhi Police is taking checks and other precautionary measures in view of the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on citizenship-related issues. The law, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
Although preliminary assessments indicated that the Delhi Police had escaped the mob, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik denied that the Delhi Police had to face a shortage of manpower leading to the riots. “We have enough manpower and total support of the government,” he said.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Manoj Tiwari said that we agree to rise above politics and bring the situation under control.
Subhash Chopra of the senior Delhi Congress, who attended the meeting, said that “the provocative statements by political figures sparked violence.” If the situation is to be controlled then these have to be stopped. Chopra was referring to the statements of Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra.
