Callous, indolent, inefficient, vague: Courts on Delhi Police’s role in investigating 2020 violence https://cjp.org.in/callous-indolent-inefficient-vague-courts-on-the-delhi-polices-role-in-investigating-2020-violence/  06, Sep 2021 | Adeeti Singh  An analysis of over 10 orders points to an inefficient investigation by a centrally controlled police department

The State has since tried to manipulate the narrative by calling the demonstration ( anti Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 protests) communal, instead of the legislation that aims to provide citizenship to only non-Muslims from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The protests were an organised effort for inclusion, an attempt to assert identity and belong to the country. But the State deflected attention and manipulated public opinion by deliberately trying to confuse protests with ‘planning a riot’.

Though verdicts have come after a whole year of being held under a manipulated process and a draconian law, the district courts and most recently the Delhi High Court has questioned the Delhi Police’s probe into the violence of February 2020. Perhaps this will help in re-shaping public discourse, that protestors are not “Islamic extremists”, “urban naxals”, and “anti-nationals”, and bring to the fore, a conversation on how citizens must and need to hold the state accountable.