AAP ups ante on ‘worsening’ law and order in Delhi, BJP calls for NRC

AAP ups ante on ‘worsening’ law and order in Delhi, BJP calls for NRCBy Hindustan Times

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's niece, Damyanti Ben Modi, ended up being one of the latest victims of snatching in the city, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday upped its criticism against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government over the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the city.

The BJP, on the other hand, not only dismissed the allegations but blamed "illegal immigrants" for being the root of Delhi's law and order problem, pitched for an Assam-like National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be implemented in Delhi and accused the AAP government of being "sympathisers of illegal immigrants".

"People are concerned over such incidents. Safety and security of residents of the city are extremely important. Such incidents in the national capital do not send a good message across the country. Those involved in criminal incidents should be punished irrespective of what caste or religion they belong to," said Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Twitter.

While the AAP is the elected government in Delhi, the Centre has jurisdiction over the police force in the national capital.

AAP's national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Sunday said, "Delhi's law and order situation is deteriorating every day….The BJP, which rules the country and has control over Delhi Police, has to take the responsibility of safety and security of people in Delhi. How have we come down to a point where even the relatives of the Prime Minister are not safe in Delhi streets any longer? Are ordinary residents of the city safe then?"

BJP's Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari held illegal immigrants responsible for "80%" of the crimes in the national capital, referring to the snatching incident. Tiwari said his demand for an NRC exercise in Delhi is for identifying and evicting such illegal immigrants involved in crimes.

"As many as 80% crimes involve illegal immigrants in Delhi. That's why I have been demanding NRC, but whenever I do so, Arvind Kejriwal rises as their shield. The AAP government is a sympathiser of such illegal immigrants," he said.

Tiwari admitted that the responsibility of law and order and crime control is with the Delhi Police, which comes under the BJP-ruled central government. "But it needs to be worked out how is the Delhi Police going to control crime in Delhi when a large number of illegal immigrants are living in different parts of the city," he said.

The AAP's Delhi election in-charge Sanjay Singh said, "The BJP has failed to maintain law and order in the city and that is the reason they are politicising the issue by putting the blame on so-called illegal immigrants.