Where is Home Minister: Cong

Shah missing as Delhi Police protests

The Congress took a dig at Amit Shah on Tuesday, asking where the home minister was even as cops in Delhi held demonstrations at the new police headquarters inaugurated by him last week.

Party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted that it was a new low in the country’s 72-year history that personnel attached to Delhi Police, a department that falls under the purview of the union home ministry, are protesting.

“Lawyers are shot up and beaten up. Police is also beaten up. The moot question is, who is to protect the citizens in the capital? Is this BJP’s New India?” he said, wondering where the BJP-led government would take the country.

Paraphrasing an oft-repeated BJP slogan lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successes, Surjewal quipped: “Modi hai to hi ye mumkin hai. (This is possible only if Modi is there).”

He asked where the home minister was and how did he he propose to maintain the law and order situation in the national capital. “The matter should be sorted out under the cannons of law, he added.

Delhi Police personnel were protesting in the wake of actions taken against their colleagues following a clash with lawyers at the Tis Hazari Courts Complex in old Delhi on Saturday over the issue of parking. This was followed by a flare-up in and around the Saket courts in posh south Delhi.

The Delhi High Court has instituted a judicial inquiry into Saturday’s clashes which is being led by a retired judge while the police authorities have taken action against their personnel.

On Tuesday, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik appealed the cops who were staging a protest here over the Tis Hazari clash, to resume their duties

Amit Shah, meanwhile, held a meeting with top officials of Jammu and Kashmir in the national capital.

Union Home Secretary AK Bhalla, Chief Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir, DGP J&K and Principal Secretary Home, J&K were also present in the meeting, which took place for the first time after the region officially became a Union Territory on October 31.