Gangsters running Delhi: Kejriwal

On the first day of the Delhi assembly's winter session, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government, accusing it of failing to manage the Capital's law-and-order situation.

- Alok KN Mishra

Kejriwal alleged that Delhi had become a "gangster capital" citing rising crime rates, extortion threats, and open gang violence as evidence of the Centre's alleged "negligence".

The three-day assembly session, likely the last before the polls scheduled early next year, saw fiery exchanges between the AAP and the BJP. Kejriwal's emphasis on crime appears to signal a major campaign theme for his party in the upcoming elections.

As Delhi is a Union territory, the subjects of land, police and public order are controlled by the central government.

Delhi BJP leaders, meanwhile, hit back at the AAP government and said that the rising crime rate in Delhi is a "direct consequence of the AAP government's policy" of harbouring Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in the city.

"For past 10 years, especially since 2019, when Amit Shah became Union home minister, Delhi's law and order situation has deteriorated rapidly... If you step out with your mobile phone, someone will snatch it within 10 steps," Kejriwal said. "People are receiving extortion calls. Gang wars and shoot-outs are happening openly what we used to see in films has become Delhi's reality," he added.