While the National Capital is in the throes of unprecedented violence, the recently elected Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with a number of other cabinet ministers chose to visit the Raj Ghat to offer tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and pray for the cessation of violence in Delhi.
Delhi CM: The entire country is worried about the violence that took place in Delhi in past two days. There has been loss of lives & properties. If violence increases it’ll affect everyone. All us are here to offer our prayers to Gandhi Ji who was a follower of non-violence (ANI) pic.twitter.com/fALiTrNJ7L
— Times of India (@timesofindia) February 25, 2020
Speaking to the media, Kejriwal said that the country is worried about the violence that took place in Delhi in the last two days. “There has been a loss of lives and properties. If violence increases, it will affect everyone. All us are here to offer our prayers to Gandhi Ji who was a follower of non-violence,” he said.
“I appeal to everyone with folded hands to refrain from indulging in violence, all issues can be dealt with through dialogue,” he added.
Kejriwal’s visit to Raj Ghat came on the heels of violent clashes that broke out in the last couple of days across the national capital as anti-CAA protesters escalated their efforts to spread anarchy in the national capital by resorting to arson and stone-pelting. A petrol pump was set on fire at Bhajanpura in East Delhi and many vehicles have been burnt. There were violent skirmishes and altercation between the rioters and police personnel, especially in Northeast Delhi, killing a police constable and rendering a DCP seriously injured.
Read: Amanatullah Khan: The Okhla MLA whose contribution to AAP’s victory which cannot be ignored
However, Kejriwal and his minister’s visit to Raj Ghat appeared incomplete as the champion of peace, Amanatullah Khan did not join the Delhi chief minister to pray for the restoration of peace in the National Capital.
Khan has a chequered history of helping peace prevail in Delhi. On December 15, Amanatullah Khan apparently asked the frenzied anti-CAA protesters to maintain calm but the crowd misinterpreted him, mistaking his solemn appeals for peace with alleged calls for violence, following which clashes broke out at the Jamia Millia Islamia University. It was, maybe, Khan’s incontrovertible credentials as a pacifist that Arvind Kejriwal did not even question him, much less rap him on the knuckles for the violence that ensued his speech in Jamia.
In addition, the Okhla AAP MLA was also seen in a video alongside anti-India propagandist and Shaheen Bagh ‘protests’ mastermind Sharjeel Imam during an anti-CAA protest. It is noteworthy to mention that Sharjeel Imam, the chief co-ordinator of Shaheen Bagh protest and a The Wire columnist was seen instigating Muslims of the country to break India by cutting of North-east from the rest of the country. But, perhaps Khan, as a conscientious peace-lover, was simply trying to persuade Sharjeel to embrace a conciliatory approach to put forth his demands and shun his secessionist and seditious propaganda.
It is, possibly, this exemplary conduct espoused by Amanatullah Khan that he soon became the apple of Kejriwal’s eye, prompting him to offer Khan an AAP ticket to fight from the Okhla constituency, the same constituency in which anti-CAA protesters squatted over one of the busiest thoroughfares of Delhi in Shaheen Bagh for more than two months, causing grave inconvenience to daily commuters.
However, with such strong bona fides, Khan was sorely missed in Kejriwal’s entourage on their visit to Raj Ghat. Perhaps, his presence alongside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, an apostle of non-violence, would have impeccably underscored the unparalleled consistency between Kejriwal’s actions and his intentions to restore peace and calm amidst the turmoil in the National Capital.
