The Delhi Government on Saturday hit out at the media, terming reports that suggested the Aam Aadmi Party activists and Khirki Extension residents had resorted to “highly objectionable behaviour” with some foreign nationals as “misleading” and “mischievous”.
Earlier this week, Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti had accused the Malviya Nagar police of not cooperating with him while conducting a raid on a house occupied by two Nigerian and two Ugandan women, alleging they were involved in a drug and prostitution racket in the South Delhi neighbourhood.
The incident, that sparked a row between the government and the Delhi Police, saw the former shifting focus onto the media on Saturday for being part of a “concerted attempt to divert public attention” from the “inability and unwillingness” of the police to maintain law and order in the Capital.
The government maintained that “despite repeated requests by Mr. Bharti to the police officers present on the spot to call a squad or at least some women personnel, no attempt was made by the police to do so”.
“The government appeals to the people of the city to ignore the motivated campaign to divert attention from the real issue of functioning of the Delhi Police, which has miserably failed in even nabbing the culprits responsible for having burnt a young girl, who is undergoing trauma with 45 per cent burns in Safdarjung Hospital,” said a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.
Amid allegations of racism, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government is “strongly opposed to any harassment on the basis of nationality, caste, creed, religion and gender. The newly-elected government of Delhi strongly condemns the motivated attempts being made to twist the law and order problem into an unfounded issue based on colour and race.”
He further said India’s Capital was a “symbol of its glory” and that the “failures” of the Delhi Police will not be allowed to bring a bad name to the city.
“The Union Home Ministry, which exercises complete control over the Delhi Police, should squarely take the blame for the compromises being made by the Delhi Police with the safety and security of the people of the city,” the statement added.
On Friday, Mr. Kejriwal met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and informed him that he and his Cabinet colleagues will sit on a dharna outside Mr. Shinde’s office on Monday in case the four police officers are not suspended before 10 a.m. that day.
