While Delhi burns

The state security apparatus dithers

The unedifying spectacle of public property and religious sites being torched, and mobs throwing stones and attacking journalists just 16 km from the lavish pageantry of US President Donald Trump’s state visit rudely contradicts the government’s claim that the situation is under control. Those images of rioting and arson in the national capital — and not some distant outpost — were witnessed by the world press accompanying the US president. Their reports are unlikely to instil confidence in the investing community, more so when the ineptitude of the Delhi police, the first line of citizens’ security, was on public display.