Amit Shah met with the Delhi leaders for an hour.
New Delhi:
Top Delhi BJP leaders met with Union Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah at the Union Ministry of Home Affairs headquarters in Delhi hours after a controversial wrecking drive in violence-stricken Jahangirpuri that was shut down by the Supreme Court .
Amit Shah met with the Delhi leaders for an hour. Those in the gathering were Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, MP Ramesh Bidhuri, MLA Ram Bir Bidhuri and leader Maninder Singh Sirsa.
The leaders have not disclosed anything about the talks. “It was a routine meeting,” Mr Sirsa said.
Adesh Gupta had written to North Delhi Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh calling for an anti-encroachment campaign in the area where communal clashes broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday.
Mr Gupta asked the civil body to identify and demolish illegal structures by “rioters”.
The demolition teams arrived in Jahangirpuri in the morning along with hundreds of police officers. Shortly after, a petition to the Supreme Court called the ride illegal.
The Supreme Court will hear the petition tomorrow, signaling the worrying trend seen in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and now Delhi, of communal clashes followed by anti-encroachment campaigns targeting one community.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana agreed to an “urgent hearing” and interrupted the demolition of Jahangirpuri until then.
But the Civil Body bulldozers didn’t stop after the Supreme Court order. Twenty shops were razed to the ground, save for a wall and gate of the mosque that was the center of Saturday’s violence, before civilian teams finally halted on a second intervention by the Chief Justice.