CAPITAL SHAME

For three full days, starting February 23, armed goons ran riot in large swathes of northeast Delhi.

- Kaushik Deka and Gulam Jeelani

Some wore masks, most carried weapons—if not country pistols and swords, then iron rods or anything hard and handy—and they had murder on their minds. At the time of going to press, the hospitals had declared 27 dead and anywhere between 250 and 300 injured.

Most violent incidents took place within a 5 km radius of the Jaffrabad neighbourhood in northeast Delhi, some 15 km from the seat of the Union ministry of home affairs and 10 km from the Delhi Police headquarters. Much of the violence and wanton vandalism happened right under the nose of the police, which stood by as if in a surreal film script while people were brutalised, homes looted, and vehicles and shops and public property burned. The fact that a head constable of the Delhi Police was among the people who lost their lives did little to window-dress the sordid reality of an administration in abeyance.

Ironically, several other parts of the national capital had turned into a sanitised fortress, ready to play host to a Very Very Important Person—US President Donald J. Trump. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy playing gracious master of ceremonies, and it wasn’t until February 26, after Trump had left, that he managed to tweet his appeal for peace. Still no word, though, on any action proposed against party colleague and agent provocateur, Kapil Mishra.