Five-year jail term proposed for racial abuse
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not attend the parade, though he had been invited.
The Centre is considering a proposal to make racial and derogatory comments an offence punishable with a jail term of up to five years, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday, raising concerns over the spate of racial attacks in Delhi and NCR against people from the Northeast. The minister was speaking at Delhi Police’s 68th Raising Day parade.
He spoke on furthering the spirit of “cooperative federalism” and said, “I would like to remind you (the police) that a new government has been formed in Delhi…I expect you to extend full cooperation to this newly-formed government so that it can pave the way for the city’s development.”
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not attend the parade, though he had been invited.
Commissioner of Police B S Bassi, however, met Kejriwal later in the day at the secretariat to discuss matters related to providing the CM with adequate security.
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In a communication, the home ministry has also told the Delhi Police to solve the cases of alleged vandalism of five churches and a Christian school on an urgent basis and bring the guilty to book as such incidents create animosity between the communities.
At the function, Singh said that incidents like the alleged vandalism of minority institutions only “dent the image” of the police.
“Providing security to a diverse city like Delhi is extremely difficult task. But they have to do it,” he said.
“The police chief was asked to solve on priority the Dilshad Garden case where the entire church was gutted down. Though police is quick to inform that these were cases of thefts, they have not been able to solve this particular case of arson,” a senior home ministry official said.
The Delhi Police has been told to ensure installation of CCTV cameras in minority institutions and raise the height of their boundary walls.
Sources said details of the action plan had been sent to all police stations in Delhi. There are about 220 churches in Delhi of which 50 are Catholic. Before Christmas last year, the police had sent a circular to all churches to install CCTV cameras.
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