Spike in Covid-19 cases compels Delhi Police to take more safety cover

Disagreement on victory

Rarely have the Rajasthan chief minister and his deputy spoken in unison. On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, without naming Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, openly disagreed with what the senior leader said just before the Rajya Sabha polls. Pilot said that all allegations made by his party leaders about poaching by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been proved baseless after the election result. The ruling Congress in Rajasthan won two Rajya Sabha seats, while the BJP got one in the biennial elections held in the state last Friday. Ahead of the polls, Gehlot had insinuated that the BJP had offered Rs 25-35 crore to Congress MLAs to jump ship, and so he shifted the party MLAs and independents to a plush resort. A complaint was also lodged by party whip Mahesh Joshi with the Special Operations Group of the state police, besides the Anti-Corruption Bureau, alleging that unaccounted money had reached Rajasthan during the lockdown.

Getting off lightly

The Dalit factor in Madhya Pradesh has put the ruling BJP in a fix ahead of the crucial bypolls to 24 Assembly seats in the state expected later this year. The party is dithering over taking action against its MLA Gopilal Jatav, who voted for Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh in the Rajya Sabha election on June 19. Jatav, an MLA from Guna, a reserved seat, had owned up to his “mistake” and had tendered a written apology, saying he did not vote for Singh “deliberately”, but did so in haste. The BJP had issued a whip ahead of the polls, asking its members to vote for the party candidates, but the six-time MLA disregarded it. Fearing a backlash from the Dalit community, the party doesn’t want to take strict action against him. Of the 24 seats, 16 are in the Gwalior-Chambal region, which has a sizeable number of Dalit voters.

More cover for Delhi Police

Despite the nature of their job, Delhi Police had started observing social distancing much like everyone else. But if round one involved most meetings being held virtually or files and papers being sanitised repeatedly, the recent spike in the corona infection numbers in the city has compelled the force to make some more changes. For example, many officers are extremely selective about the files they look at now. Some have stopped calling for the daily crime diary at their residence, an established early morning ritual, and are going for the scanned versions instead. Also, earlier people with grievances against officers in their areas could go to the police headquarters and meet officers but that has stopped. Now there are boxes at the entrance to police stations, and the grievances can be dropped there. Considering the recent practice of staying away from paper, it is highly likely those documents won’t land up at the right place at the right time.