JOIN USDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who blasted the previous Sheila Dikshit government for failure to check crimes against women, seemed to struggle for words on Wednesday when asked what change had come about in the city after he came to power.
Kejriwal was asked: Has there been any change in the situation? Or is there any target on the kind of change expected?
“This I can’t say,” said a candid CM, who was responding to reporters’ questions on the gang rape of a 51-year-old woman from Denmark on Tuesday near New Delhi Railway station.
Surprisingly, the Chief Minister made no mention of plans to work on his party’s poll promise of creating a commando force for women security.
The Danish woman’s gang rape is perhaps the first incident of a foreigner’s sexual assault in the capital which is also known as the rape capital of the country and reported 1,559 rapes in 2013.
The tone of the activist-turned-politician appeared drastically low and quite different from the days of Assembly election campaign when he along with his party’s candidates went all out to target the previous government on crimes against women.
Also, Kejriwal and his team’s statements after the gruesome gang rape of the foreigner in the heart of the capital were almost the same as his Congress predecessor and her team.
While Kejriwal and his cabinet member Manish Sisodia talked of opening additional fast track courts – a step also taken by Dikshit after a physiotherapy intern was gang raped on December 16, 2012 gangrape – their AAP colleague Kumar Vishwas stressed the need to bring Delhi Police under the jurisdiction of the state government.
Dikshit had cried hoarse giving the same defence but Kejriwal, through huge hoardings, pamphlets and banners behind autorickshaws, had targeted her government for its failure to stop rapes in Delhi.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal was on the other side of the table. He sounded a little defensive and said he spoke to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung over the Danish woman’s gang rape and would discuss the issue with police Commissioner B S Bassi. “To prevent rapes, an analysis needs to be done on all incidents whether these are locality or venue specific, person specific or situation specific,” he said.
In its manifesto, the AAP promised that a Citizens’ Security Force would be formed with a branch in each ward, which would provide security to anyone in distress, with special focus on security of women, children and senior citizens.