He Came, Live-Streamed, Fired, Waved Pistol…And Walked Into Delhi Police’s Arms

New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s biased approach was in stark display on Thursday -- the day the country was observing the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by Hindu supremacist fanatic Nathuram Godse.

Scene One -- A pistol-toting man, who calls himself ‘Ram Bhakt Gopal’ on Facebook, shot at a student when a march against CAA was in progress near Jamia Millia Islamia. He kept waving the firearm in the air while the heavily deployed police force stood by and watched his performance, before they inched ahead and quite literally, the man walked into an officer’s arms and was taken into a police jeep.

Scene Two -- People gathered for a peaceful human chain near Rajghat, protesting against the violation of the Constitution by the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, were detained by Delhi Police even before they could begin the human chain.

Hundreds of lawyers, political and social activists, ordinary citizens, students, youth and women were picked up by police from Delhi Gate and Rajghat, preventing them from exercising their right to protest. Among the arrested were CPI leaders D Raja, Binoy Viswam, CITU leader Tapan Sen, Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, ostensibly for violating Section 144.

“All we had planned to do was sing the national anthem and hold the national flag,” Bhushan told NDTV.

Yadav tweeted that “Police confirmed: no 144 in force, served us no order. Yet dragged and pushed into bus. Being taken to unknown destination".

Now contrast this again with the situation in Jamia. What is chilling is that the shooter, who reportedly hails from UP, was live-streaming on Facebook minutes before he fired on the Jamia students who were marching to Rajghat and shouted ‘Ye Lo Azaadi’ (referring to the Azaadi slogans popular with anti-CAA-NRC-NPR protesters across the country).

Incidentally, till late evening, media reported that no FIR had been filed against the shooter, neither was he arrested. He was just being questioned.

Before the shooting, the 19 -year old who terms himself as the ‘only true Hindu’ in his Facebook post, also put out messages on Facebook stating "Shaheen Bhag Khel Khatam" (Run Shaheen, the game is over). Another message stated, "Please wrap me in saffron in my last journey with slogans of Jai Shri Ram". His Facebook profile was deleted after screenshots of his posts were circulated widely on social media platforms, reports PTI.

The Delhi Police, which directly takes orders from the Home Ministry now headed by Amit Shah, was earlier too seen as standing by as spectators on January 5, when masked persons, some of whom, like one Komal Sharma, were identified as members of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (thought they were later disowned by ABVP) unleashed violence inside JNU campus, beating up students and teachers with lathis and iron rods.

Incidentally, there has been no arrest in the JNU incident so far.

In contrast, FIRs and arrests have been made in cases of alleged violence in Jamia Millia Islamia, which saw police entering the campus library and beating up students in the reading room and even teargassing them inside, as a result of which once student even lost his palm.

Also, the rapid action of the police in arresting JNU student Sharjeel Imam, among the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protest who later distanced himself, is in stark contrast to the complete inaction by the Delhi Police with regard to the JNU violence unleashed by masked persons.

Presided over by Amit Shah – it seems making speeches and raising slogans is a more serious crime for the Delhi Police than beating unarmed people with lathis and iron rods, and even firing at them!

As the February 8 elections near, Delhi Police’s biased approach to law & order in the capital, in the backdrop of venomous speeches by BJP leaders against anti-CAA protesters, especially in Shaheen Bagh, all eyes are now on the Election Commission. Will the polls be fair and violence-free?