NEW DELHI: In the now-monumental war between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Delhi Police, an ad that is running on TV and radio about the stabbing of a young teen has become a point of combat.
Delhi Police Chief BS Bassi says the ad is misleading and exaggerates safety problems for women in the city.
The ad features the Chief Minister describing the recent stabbing of the teen by her alleged stalkers in the capital. Mr Kejriwal says the Prime Minister must devote some time to holding the police accountable, or make the police force answerable to the state government, a point he has been making since he first became the Chief Minister in 2013.
Because Delhi is a Union Territory, the police is controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Mr Kejriwal says that the 19-year-old's stabbing earlier this month is tragic but crucial evidence of the police's inefficiency. The woman's parents have said they had complained repeatedly to the cops about the men who were harassing their daughter, but had been largely ignored.
In a television interview earlier this week, the Chief Minister used the derisive slang "thulla" to describe a Delhi cop. The remark provoked a strong protest from senior policemen, as well as a defamation suit from a constable.
After the stabbing, Mr Kejriwal summoned the police chief for a detailed update on the investigation, and was reportedly rebuffed.
The conflict with the police is part of Mr Kejriwal's open and bitter confrontation with the Union government, who he accuses of trying to run Delhi by proxy. The bulk of his allegations are pivoted on the role of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, who acts as the representative of the Centre in Delhi, and has said that it is his right alone to decide important posts including those of top bureaucrats. Mr Kejriwal has challenged that stand in court.