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Within half an hour of convening, both Houses of the parliament were adjourned this morning amid opposition protest. A whole week of the monsoon session washed out without Amit Shah coming to the house, as demanded by the Opposition, to explain the Delhi Police brutal crackdown at Jantar Mantar on July 20. 

It is anybody’s guess whether it is a political decision not to give an inch to the opposition – it would be understandable if the ruling coterie digs its heels in lest the opposition gets tempted to replicate the Dharmendra Pradhan example. Could it be that the home minister is developing cold feet, sensing the very perceptible change in the national mood? Or, are we witnessing the meltdown of a distinct political persona?

Staying away from the parliamentary ring is against Amit Shah’s fitrat and reputation. According to long time observers, unlike Narendra Modi, he is a total stranger to political cowardice. On his left sleeve, he wears a I-know-better-than-all-of-you swagger; on his right sleeve, he wears the self-assurance of a mofussil mind. He thinks his admirers are not wrong in using the ‘Chanakya’ moniker for him. It is most unlike him not to react to the opposition’s charge that he is running away from facing them in parliament.  

The entire officialdom is unable to fathom Amit Shah’s studied absence from the House. Since his anointment in 2019 as the Union home........

© The Wire