CAA violence: HC allows Centre's impleadment in PIL for FIRs over hate speech by 3 BJP leaders
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday allowed impleadment of the Centre in the PIL seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests in northeast Delhi where violence has erupted over the amended citizenship law.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar granted four weeks to the Centre and the police to file their replies to the PIL seeking lodging of FIRs against three BJP leaders for allegedly making hate speeches.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that as the Centre is responsible for maintaining law and order in Delhi, it be made a party in the matter, which was allowed by the court.
He informed the bench that 48 FIRs have been lodged in relation to the violence and said there be no judicial intervention till normalcy is restored in the national capital.
Mehta said the FIRs have been lodged in relation to arson, looting and the deaths in the communal violence. The death toll in the communal violence reached 34 on Thursday, with around 200 people injured.
The high court had on Wednesday expressed "anguish" over the Delhi Police's failure to register FIRs against three BJP leaders over their alleged hate speeches in connection with the Citizenship (Amendment Act-related violence and observed that the city had seen enough violence and it should not witness another 1984 anti-Sikh riots-like incident.
The bench had also questioned that when the police could register FIRs in connection with incidents of violence, including arson, looting, stone pelting, why did it not show alacrity when it came to the alleged hate speeches by the three BJP leaders -- Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra.
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No need to wait till September 2025, Modi won't be PM after poll results in June: Shashi Tharoor
Mumbai, May 12: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said the country need not have to wait till September 2025 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not remain at the helm after June 4, when results of Lok Sabha polls will be declared.
Tharoor's comments come a day after AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal claimed Modi is asking for votes for Home Minister Amit Shah, who will be his successor after Modi "retires" on turning 75 in September 2025.
"A new government will come to power at the Centre in June. There is no need to wait till September 2025," Tharoor said while responding to a query on Kejriwal's remarks.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, the Thiruvananthapuram MP alleged Modi has lowered the standard of public discourse and the language being used by him is not good for the country.
He justified the Congress' decision to decline the invitation for the consecration ceremony of Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya earlier this year, saying the BJP doesn't have copyright on Lord Ram.
"I go to temples for praying and not for doing politics. They are misusing the 'pran pratishtha' ceremony in Ayodhya for politics. Should I surrender Lord Ram to BJP?", Tharoor asked.
The Congress leader further claimed the BJP has failed to hold a substantive dialogue on issues like rising inflation, unemployment, the failure to double the income of farmers income and the decline in the income of 80 per cent of the population.
Replying to a query on Kejriwal's remarks on the "retirement age" of Modi, Tharoor said, ''Will BJP make the exception for one person? Anyway, we need not have to wait till September 2025. Modi will not be PM after June 2024 (when the results of Lok Sabha elections will be out),''
Tharoor cited "compulsions of coalition politics" when asked why Congress hasn't named even a single Muslim candidate in Lok Sabha polls from Maharashtra.
"In coalition politics, a party has to contest lesser number of seats," he added.
He said making concessions in the larger interest of the alliance cannot be called a surrender.
The Congress is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra along with Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Tharoor claimed the BJP has failed to give representation to Muslims in the government.
"All Muslim leaders who were part of the Vajpayee era were phased out after Modi's first term (as prime minister),'' he said.
"Allies are standing with us. There is mutual respect unlike in the BJP-led NDA where Akali Dal and BJD have spurned the BJP," Tharoor said, adding that former PMs Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh ran the coalition governments excellently.
He claimed Modi wants to run the parliamentary system of democracy in a Presidential style.
According to Tharoor, the Congress' priority is to protect the essential character of cosmopolitan Mumbai. '
"After three phases of polling, a change is visible in the air, " he said.
Tharoor campaigned for Congress nominees Varsha Gaikwad and Bhushan Patil who are in the fray from Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North seats, respectively, against BJP's Ujjwal Nikam and Union minister Piyush Goyal.
Voting for all six Parliamentary constituencies in Mumbai is scheduled for May 20.
"I am confident that there will be good results in the favour of Congress," Tharoor added.
