Former Lt Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung. (File photo)
In the wake of the Delhi violence, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and former Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia Najeeb Jung Tuesday questioned the leadership of the Delhi Police, saying SHOs are “a competent lot” but are not “not being led properly”.
His statement comes in the backdrop of violent clashes in several areas of Northeast Delhi that has left 18 people, including a Head Constable, dead.
Delhi violence LIVE UPDATES
Jung said that events in Delhi have larger implications for India and the “only way out” was for the Centre to “initiate dialogue immediately” on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), protests against which are not going to end soon.
On whether the Army was required to control the situation in the national capital, Jung said: “Delhi does not need the Army just yet as it has a range of paramilitary forces and 75,000-strong police force which can be used extremely effectively. The SHOs are a very competent lot, as I know them, they are not being led properly.”
Delhi violence: Two vajra vahans, one riot police vehicle, and six buses, carrying paramilitary forces of the RPF and the SSB pulled in to the Maujpur chowk. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
“Why has no action has been taken so far against (BJP local leader) Kapil Mishra? He has instigated and initiated this whole thing and should be held responsible for the deaths reported so far. His property should be confiscated and he should be made to compensate, however marginally, the families of the victims,” he added.
Mishra was seen, in presence of the police, making inflammatory statements on Sunday, wanting roads occupied by the anti-CAA protesters to be cleared “in three days”.
The former IAS officer said the government not being able to control events in Delhi will have larger implications. “This chaos of Delhi will have a larger impact on India as the CAA agitations are not going to go away. The Centre is being cussed and refusing to talk to anyone,” he said.
According to him, the “Union government should not sit on pride but initiate dialogue immediately. This is the only way out”.
A group shouts slogans during the clash between two groups at Khajoori-Bhajanpura road in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
Jung was the L-G from July 2013 to December 2016, a time of great friction between the elected government of Delhi led by CM Arvind Kejriwal and the L-G office. This was also when domains and jurisdictions of the Centre and state, and law and order, were debated bitterly.