Panic ran amok amongst Delhites. They started to call frantically to their families and relatives in West, South West and South Delhi to caution them stay indoors. It was an acid test for newly appointed Commissioner or Police; S N Sivastava assumed charge for the post on that very day. But Delhi Police was quick in action at this time. Police personnel from SHO’s to senior rank officers hit the ground and pacified the panicked citizens and normalcy was restored within three hours of intense confidence building measures including appeals in social media. The responsible citizen including politicians also made appeals. A well concerted approach helped to avoid any untoward incident in the city. But this panicked gripped three hours revealed that the city lived in the edge of fear with volatile confidence on Law & Order machinery.

Indeed riots take birth from the wombs of rumours. The fragile confidence on Law & Order of the city is not unusual as it has derived from the gruesome communal violence of North East Delhi where Delhi Police as well as political machinery were full of lethargy to take the pre-emptive measure to reduce the tension which ultimately led to a violent riot.

It is quite surprising to see the fashion in which Peaceful-Protest-Turn-Riot was unfolded in areas like Jaffrabad, Chandbagh, Mauzpur area. Although Shaheen Bagh was consistent in last two months on Anti-CAA protest, the riot hit areas of North East Dellhi did not show any such enthusiasm in those period. However, due to some mysterious reason, 1000 plus people including women began a sit-in protest at Jaffrabad Metro Station on February 22 ,2020. It is quite possible that Anti-CAA group wanted to catch an eye ball of the international media amidst of US President’s visit. At the first place it was an intelligence failure as well as failure to take quick action to disperse the gathering and clear the road block. On the contrary the administration took a laid back attitude to let the people gather and block the road. What did force them not to take a knee jerk action at the very outset of the protest is a matter of contemplation. Possibly, the entire police administration looked towards Home Ministry and its top boss as the issue was pertained to CAA. It must have delayed the decision making process and eventually lost control of the ground situation.

It is not any brainer to understand that it was in the interest of the ruling party BJP to play down the fresh protest and limit it locally. But walking into an opposite direction BJP politician Kapil Mishra plunged into the affair and made infuriated speech at Maujpur chowk on 23 rd February. After that the situation became extremely charged up and within hours violence erupted. Rest is a sad history which claimed more than 40 innocent lives. It is beyond comprehension that how BJP, a regimented party, lose grip of its local leaders and become a victim of their novice political adventures. Nothing can compensate the infamy brought into Modi Government and Home Ministry due to this incident. It seems that BJP party machinery became complacent and there were no directives to its foot soldiers to act in consonance of a well-defined party line. This led fringe elements to take centre stage on which BJP leaderships had no control.

It appears that Jaffrabad-Mauzpur protest took aspiration and emboldened itself further from the pot boiler of Shaheen Bagh Protest. The Anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protest began in 14th December, 2019 and metamorphosed itself as a peaceful sit-in protest in allegiance to Indian Constitution. One may suspect that political strategists of BJP had consciously let this protest continue to create a pole position along religious line in the season of Delhi election. BJP was devoid of any local issue as Aam Aadmi Party claimed all credits of local development. So the religious fault line along Shaheen Bagh was created as a poll-plank. Neither police nor union government showed any urgency to resolve the conflict at its nascent stage. Rather over-jingoistic BJP youth leaders made the situation more murky for BJP. None of these worked for BJP and the party felled flat on its face in Delhi State election. But the damages were already done due to endurance to the protest along with venom of hate spitted regularly by the local leaders of BJP.

It is quite conspicuous to see that Delhi Police did not take any pre-emptive action to vacate the road blocked by protesters at the early days of the protest. Likewise political bosses in the Government took rigid stand and were unwilling to start any early dialogue to bridge the gap of confidence. Certainly these have given an impression that police administration and government machinery developed cold feet to take any step to tone down the conflict and pacify the protesters.

Excessive centralized decision making system is a slow poison which paralyzes the administration take real time action and major lapses start happening. The decentralized decision-making system with powers vested along the hierarchy is at bay in the present government. The centralized system grappling over too many issues, be it PMO or Home Ministry, tends to miss the delicate points and lead indicators of upcoming challenges in governance. It has resulted in losing control in the ground. Well, the function of BJP party machinery is also the reflection of the same. Losing control over the administrative machinery as well as party functions may prove to be up-the-ante for BJP’s political fortune. It’s the time to regain control through decentralized decision making process. (IPA Service)