Delhi Confidential: All eyes on Amit Shah

Even as Home Minister Amit Shah convened a series of meetings to restore peace and normalcy in Delhi, some BJP leaders suggested a potential future course of action.

Home Minister Amit Shah.

Even as Home Minister Amit Shah convened a series of meetings to restore peace and normalcy in Delhi, some BJP leaders suggested a potential future course of action. Prominent among them was BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, who tweeted that the “game starts now”, only to change it later with more acceptable framing of his intention. But the new tweet advocated that the “rioters need to be taught a lesson or two of Indian laws”. This left many in the party wondering whether it was a suggestion for Shah to emulate UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The UP administration initiated recovery proceedings, asking alleged rioters to pay damages after protests against the CAA, NRC and NPR turned violent in different parts of the state. UP Police had also put up pictures of alleged rioters in public for their identification and added additional charges later to implicate them under stringent law. After Santhosh’s tweet, all eyes are on Shah’s next step.

Past Participant

When Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting with leaders of political parties of Delhi and senior officials to take stock of the violence, Subhash Chopra represented the Congress. Chopra is no more the president of Delhi Congress, as his resignation following the party’s drubbing in the Assembly elections had been accepted. The party is headless in Delhi, where it has neither an MLA nor MP. So Chopra, being the leader who headed the party’s state unit until a few days ago, was invited for the consultations.

Stuck For Long

In 2018, the Aam Aadmi Party had landed in trouble with the Election Commission (EC) over discrepancies in its actual and reported donations. After the Central Board of Direct Taxes flagged the difference to EC, the latter issued a notice to the party and sought its explanation. Almost one-and-a-half years later there has not been any further movement in the case based on AAP’s reply to the EC notice. Turns out that the Commission feels it is not the right authority to investigate whether donations had been reported accurately or not. The poll watchdog will probably act once the tax department’s proceedings in the case is over.