The Lutyens Bungalow Zone is supposed to be the safest part of the capital and indeed one of the most secure parts of the country. After all, the president and prime minister live here as well as many heads of top constitutional bodies. Yet twice in the past three days alone, there has been a breakdown in law and order in the Patiala House Court Complex, just down the road from India Gate, with scenes of the sort that left the Delhi Police looking helpless.
On Wednesday, violent lawyers once again took control of the court complex before Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was set to appear in a controversial case of alleged sedition. Two days before, these lawyers had turned Patiala House upside down, attacking journalists and JNU faculty while the police stood by watching.
That incident had prompted much condemnation about the hooliganism. On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court had taken notice of the matter and ordered extra security at the court complex.
Yet violence still broke out, despite the entire complex being flanked by police personnel. First, a group of lawyers claiming to be from Sonepat who were shouting slogans in defence of Kumar were dragged into the complex by another set of lawyers yelling, "Bharat Mata ki Jai." They were led again by Vikram Chahuan, whose Facebook profile flaunts his connection to top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Home Minister Rajnath Singh. He had been caught on camera manhandling people on Monday.
The mob grabbed the other set of pro-Kanhaiya lawyers and began assaulting them, and once again turned their sights on a journalist who had the gall to try and video tape the incident.
Eventually, Anwar got away from the mob, who remained inside the court complex while the rest of the media were stuck outside. The Supreme Court's directions earlier in the day had limited the number of journalist who could enter the court complex, ostensibly for their own safety, forcing many to remain right outside the campus alongside video journalists.
This turned them into a target, with one lawyer inside the court complex actually throwing a rock at the mass of journalists outside.
The Supreme Court acted quickly when apprised of these developments, and the danger it posed to Kumar. The magistrate in Patiala House, concerned about Kumar's safety, in fact had ordered him to take shelter in the judge's chambers, with messages coming out asking for him as well as his advocates to be safely rescued from within the court complex. The Supreme Court immediately directed the Delhi Commissioner of Police to ensure their safety, and deputed a five-lawyer committee to visit Patiala House and see what is happening there.
The situation was so messy however that even this panel featuring senior advocates were heckled, with insults yelled at them and even had objects thrown at them.
The panel, which also told the court that Kumar had been manhandled while being brought in, will give a full report to the Supreme Court on Thursday at 2 pm.
Delhi Police Commissioner BL Bassi meanwhile tweeted out a letter that Kumar reportedly signed while in the court complex. He also told a TV channel that the police will not oppose a bail plea from Kumar, even though today he was sent to two weeks of judicial custody.
Bassi has in fact taken most of the flak from the events of the last few days. He is after all responsible for law and order in the capital and has on the way made incredibly intemperate statements, such as insisting that the violence within Patiala House Court on Monday involved "excesses from both sides".
But all the attention on Bassi has to some extent allowed the government and the BJP to get a free pass. The Delhi Police is a central force and it reports to the Home Minister, who should be more than perturbed by a breakdown in law and order in the capital.
And the BJP has both direct links to the violence, through its Member of Legislative Assembly OP Sharma who was caught on video hitting a communist leader, as well as indirect ones, through Chauhan, the lawyer who was leading the mob.
After a few days of vacillation, with BJP leaders not saying much about the violence and asking for the focus to be kept on the allegedly seditious JNU students, Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley – who is also a lawyer – finally spoke up.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh ought to be next. The government and the BJP seem to have presumed the violence inside Patiala House was just another part of their broader move against JNU's alleged antinationals. But the Supreme Court's sudden focus on the matter and the repeated thrashing of journalists – many of whose publications and TV channels have actually toed the establishment line on JNU – should have served as a wake up call.
Even if the government doesn't let up on its action against the alleged sedition in JNU, there should be no excuse for it to treat the breakdown of law and order within Patiala House, right in the Lutyens zone, as anything other than a major crisis and a threat to the security of the capital.
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