No urgency?

Repeated adjournments in Lok Sabha on the second day after Parliament recommenced its Budget Session on March 2 tells the tale of troubled times. Delhi violence has aroused the opposition. While the source of their agitation is known, there is the critical question of the precious time of Parliament getting wasted. The violence that erupted in Delhi last week, however, has been reason enough for the opposition to call for Amit Shah's resignation. The violence that left 46 dead and hundreds injured in the national capital, by all means, deserves discussion from MPs. However, LS speaker Om Birla asserted that discussions would be held after Holi i.e., on March 11. When discussion over serious public unrest has been demanded, scheduling the same for a week later does not fit the bill. If the novel coronavirus — COVID-19 — is on verge of being a pandemic now, would we have the audacity to discuss it at a later stage? In both cases, lives have been lost and a sense of urgency is aroused. Posting the matter for discussion later is merely not considering it as a serious issue, or at least that is the message that goes out. It does not seem fit for a government to be reluctant in discussing matters of utmost priority, especially when it involves most contentious of topics — CAA — which have contributed to an unabated polarisation of masses.

In fact, it is not just Lok Sabha that shied away from taking up the issue on a priority but rather the Delhi High Court as well. Negating Justice Muralidhar's view, who rose to the occasion and grilled the Delhi Police for not filing FIRs against the hate speeches — which may have served to instigate the crowd — despite erupting communal violence, the Delhi High Court gave the Delhi Police 4 weeks to decide whether to file the FIR or not. While it has been widely understood that the law will take its due course, why has there been no consideration for an expedited hearing and resolution in the matter, especially when it involves communal clashes right under the nose of the Home Ministry and Supreme Court? Several accounts have established laxity on Delhi Police's part when it came to handling the communal clashes in Delhi. With no punitive measures taken in regard to hate speeches, and the police itself not taking cognisance of such hate speeches like that of Kapil Mishra which serves as a prime instigator for the clashes in the north-east Delhi, is the episode of violence not getting the due discussion it demands?

(Image from thehindu.com)