NEW DELHI: Hours after over 40 schools in Delhi received bomb threat emails, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal took a swipe at Union home minister Amit Shah, accusing the central government of failing to maintain law and order in the capital. “The people of Delhi have never seen such a bad state of law and order before. Amit Shah ji should come and answer the people of Delhi,” he said.
The response from the AAP national convener followed bomb threats received by 40 private schools in Delhi on Monday morning. Among these, promient institutions included Delhi Public School in Vasant Kunj and R.K. Puram, G.D. Goenka School, Doon Public School in Paschim Vihar, and Brilliant’s Convent School in Pitampura.
However, this is not the first time Kejriwal has criticised the BJP-led central government over Delhi’s law and order situation, which falls under the purview of the Union ministry of home affairs. He has frequently held the home minister directly responsible for what he describes as the “worsening” state of safety in the capital.
Earlier on Sunday, Kejriwal led a padyatra in Karol Bagh, raising similar concerns. “I am deeply concerned. From morning till evening, I roam around Delhi, meet people, and everywhere I go, they tell me the same thing—that they feel scared to even step out on the streets,” Kejriwal said.
“Early yesterday morning, in Vishwas Nagar near Shahdara, a businessman went for a walk in the park. On his way back, two boys on a motorcycle shot him eight times. A little later, news came that someone had stabbed another person to death in Govindpuri. Just a week ago, a police constable was stabbed to death in the same locality.”
Over the past month, Kejriwal has flagged what he perceives as a significant increase in gang violence, extortion calls to businessmen, and frequent shootings. He accused Amit Shah of turning Delhi into the “gangster and extortion capital” of India, likening the current scenario to Mumbai’s underworld dominance in the 1990s.
The Delhi Police, responsible for maintaining law and order, operates under the Union ministry of home affairs, while the Delhi government is run by Kejriwal’s AAP.