NEW DELHI: Apart from blaming BJP leaders and ‘nationalist figures’ for the violence in northeast Delhi over the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) has accused the home ministry of failing to prevent the rioting and arson from February 2020.
The response of the Centre, specially the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), was wholly inadequate, stated the on northeast Delhi violence prepared by the five-member committee. “Despite having command over both the Delhi Police and the central paramilitary forces, the MHA failed to take effective steps to stem the spread of communal violence. Repeated assurances on February 24 and 25 by police top brass and government officials that the situation was under control did not match the visibility of violence on the ground.”
Noting that the Delhi Police failed to take punitive measures against hate speeches made by political leaders and others, the committee – comprising former bureaucrats and diplomats – also said an investigation through an independent process, possibly a court-monitored investigation, is required to find out ‘abject’ police failures including ‘apparent police complicity’ of varying degrees in the riots.
The committee further pinned the blame on a section of private television news channels for ‘vilifying anti-CAA protests and fanning unsubstantiated conspiracy theories during the riots’. In its three-part findings, the Committee alleged that polarisation between communities, particularly anti-Muslim hate, was deliberately fueled in the months preceding the violence.
“The campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections gathered momentum in January. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) focused its election campaign on the CAA issue, within a divisive narrative framing the anti-CAA protests as anti-national and violent. Protesters were labelled “traitors” by candidates and party leaders, such as Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur, at election rallies and public demonstrations. Calls for violence against the so-called “traitors” were casually repeated,” it said.
Former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Madan B Lokur was the chairperson of the five-member committee, which has authored the report. The other members are former chief justice of Delhi High Court Justice AP Shah, Justice (retired) RS Sodhi of the Delhi High Court, Justice (retired) Anjana Prakash of the Patna High Court and ex-home secretary GK Pillai.