Amit Shah's law and order review: An admission of failure?

Union home minister Amit Shah’s sudden decision to chair a high-level meeting on Delhi’s law and order situation raises more questions than answers. For starters, as someone who has held the home ministry portfolio for nearly a decade and is directly responsible for Delhi Police, why a review meeting now?

Why, after years of neglect, has Shah finally woken up to the deteriorating security situation in the national capital?

The meeting, attended by newly-appointed Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora, saw the announcement of a slew of measures, among them setting up peace committees at every police station, the deportation of Rohingyas, and initiatives for women’s safety.

But these pronouncements, instead of reassuring Delhi’s citizens, seem more like an acknowledgment of Shah’s own failure to maintain law and order.

Delhi, long considered unsafe for women, has witnessed a steep rise in crimes against women over the last 10 years, with the city topping the national charts, according to NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) data.

The 2020 Delhi riots, which left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured, were a grim reminder of how law enforcement, under Shah’s watch, failed to contain communal violence.

Despite being the capital of the country and directly under the Central government's control, Delhi has repeatedly seen law and order breakdowns. And yet, until now, Shah never felt the need to hold such a review meeting.

Instead of taking accountability, the home minister has chosen to appoint scapegoats. Which is why his order for “strict action” against police stations and subdivisions that perform poorly is an implicit admission that Delhi Police, which reports directly to the Union home ministry, has failed. But who is to blame for this failure? The rank and file of the police force, or the leadership that controls and directs them?

One of the key takeaways from the meeting was the decision to identify traffic congestion points and work with the Delhi government to find solutions.

However, the BJP has consistently used Delhi’s governance issues to attack the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, rather than work in collaboration. The sudden shift in tone, with Shah emphasising a “double-engine” government approach, suggests an attempt to neutralise criticism rather than a genuine effort to improve governance.

The emphasis on deporting Rohingyas also follows the BJP’s tried-and-tested strategy of diverting attention from pressing local issues by invoking the spectre of “illegal intruders”. But deporting a handful of Rohingyas will not solve Delhi’s issues, nor will it make women feel safer in the streets.

Political analysts see this meeting as a move to counter the opposition narrative. Law and order were key poll planks for the AAP in the recently concluded assembly elections. Shah's ministry, which directly controls Delhi Police, faced heat over rising crime rates and its failure to protect citizens.

By holding this review meeting, Shah is attempting to project an image of a proactive home minister who is “working with” the Delhi government, which just coincidentally happens to be a BJP government too.

However, Delhi’s citizens should not be fooled. The real question remains: why did it take nearly a decade for Amit Shah to acknowledge Delhi’s law and order crisis? And if he is serious about change, will he hold himself accountable for the failures of the past?