Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday praised the Delhi police for handling the situation when clashes broke out in northeast Delhi last month.
Praising the Delhi Police, he said, the violence was confined to 4 per cent of the city’s area, 13 per cent of its population and ended within 36 hours.
Shah’s remarks came during his “much-awaited” address to Lok Sabha over the four-day relentless violence that prevailed in the national capital last month. He also expressed his condolences to the families of victims who died in the violence.
The violence had claimed more than 50 lives in the national capital last month. Congress has been demanding the discussion over the issue in the Lok Sabha and alleged police inaction resulting in the stretch of the violent situation.
He told the House that over 700 FIRs have been filed and over 2600 people have either been detained or arrested in connection with the violence. CCTV footage is being monitored and the ‘face recognition’ technique is being used to track down suspects from thousands of videos they have received.
Amit Shah asserted that the Delhi Police have identified as many as 1100 people who participated in the riots by the use of face-recognition software. He further claimed that out of these, 300 came from Uttar Pradesh.
“I would like to place on record that after 25th February, no incident of rioting took place. There have been attempts to politicise these riots,” he said.
“MPs raised doubts about what the police were doing. It is the opposition’s right to question. But when the police were trying to control the riots, struggling with violence, we should understand,” he added.
Amid the Home Minister’s response, the members of opposition parties staged a walk-out in the Lower House of the Parliament over the Delhi violence.
Amit Shah also launched an attack on the Congress for inciting violence through its hate speech as by referring to Sonia Gandhi’s speech at Ramlila Maidan, he said hate speech was provoked by the Grand Old Party.
On February 19 and 22 also, similar inflammatory speeches have been made, he said.
Home Minister who continuously faced the calls for his resignation in the wake of the Delhi violence also answered the question about his absence from the violence-affected areas. He said that he didn’t want the Delhi Police to “divert resources” to provide him with security.
Earlier, TMC MP, Saugata Roy had slammed Amit Shah for his absence from the violence-affected areas and said he was seated in the front row on February 24 at an event which was held to welcome the US President Donald Trump in Ahmedabad. At the same time, the violence was taking place in Delhi.
Countering the allegation, Shah said his attendance at the Trump event was pre-planned and it was his constituency where it happened, making his presence essential. He said he didn’t attend the event which was held in Delhi the next day.
He claimed that he was sitting with the police the whole day to discuss the violent situation prevailing in the national capital.
Reiterating his stance on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Amit Shah said there is no provision in the Act which will take the citizenship of any Indian citizen. There is no provision of revoking citizenship, he asserted.