Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary speaks during the ongoing Budget Session inside Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on Wednesday (ANI)

Congress on Wednesday demanded home minister Amit Shah’s resignation for his “failure to contain the Delhi riots” even as most opposition parties demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the communal flare-up that claimed 53 lives and left over 500 injured.

Congress MPs staged a walkout during Shah’s response in Lok Sabha, claiming he was “misleading Parliament” instead of accepting his failure in containing the riots.

On Wednesday morning, Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury gunned for Shah’s scalp as he referred to the violence as a “defeat of humanity”. Accusing PM Narendra Modi and Shah of being like Roman emperor Nero and “playing the fiddle in Ahmedabad to host President Trump” while Delhi burned, Chowdhury also referred to the midnight transfer of a Delhi High Court judge who pulled up the government and Delhi Police for “inaction” and called it a “midnight surgical strike on the judiciary”.

This saw heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches. Even as BJP MPs asserted that the government had nothing to do with the judge’s transfer, BJD MP Pinaki Mishra clarified that the transfer was, indeed, cleared by the law ministry.

Questioning Shah on why he was “missing in action” from riot-hit areas when NSA Ajit Doval could visit to calm nerves, Chowdhury said, “Why did Ajit Doval have to step in? NSA does not step in to control law and order. He reports directly to the PM and his office. This means the PMO did not have the faith in the home minister’s office. It seems India now has two power centres, the PMO and the HMO.”

Several opposition parties echoed Congress’s charges. TMC’s Saugata Roy said BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi's speech was “communal and polarising” and that she played the devil's advocate for “defending” BJP’s Kapil Mishra. He said the minority community suffered more in the riots and demanded Shah’s resignation.

AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi said there was a “tsunami of Hindutva hate” and called for an impartial probe to find the perpetrators of the violence. BSP’s Danish Ali opposed Lekhi for “identifying” women of one community, a remark that led Speaker Om Birla to direct members not to take the names of any caste or religion. Birla also directed that some of Lekhi’s comments be expunged .

Referring to the riots as shameful because even the media and judiciary was not spared, DMK’s T R Baalu said, “Even mediapersons were not left alone. Those belonging to CNN, NDTV, Times of India, Reuters, India Today, and News18 were mercilessly attacked. Their equipment was seized and thrown into dustbins. All this happened during daylight on February 24, 25 and 26.”

BJD’s Pinaki Mishra said he was embarrassed and ashamed as an Indian by what happened. “I believe that there must be the most dispassionate, the most ruthless possible investigation into why these riots occurred, who the perpetrators were and they must be brought to book mercilessly. But this must be an independent inquiry and this must inspire confidence,” he said.

NCP’s Amol Kolhe said Indian was in the grips of “religious nationalism” and expressed concern over children being asking questions on religion. Samajwadi Party’s Shafiqur Rehman Barq demanded action against BJP’s Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. He also said Muslims were feeling insecure and demanded a judicial inquiry into the violence.

