The Congress on Thursday pleaded with President Ram Nath Kovind to make a decisive intervention to get home minister Amit Shah sacked from the government alleging deliberate inaction on his part to curb rioting in Delhi.

“Where was the Home Minister and what was he preoccupied with since last Sunday that he was unable, apparently, to give his attention to these grave events?” the party said in a memorandum submitted to the President by a delegation led by Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Was there any information provided (by intelligence agencies) which could have helped prevent escalation of violence or was it not acted upon by the Home Ministry?”

The memorandum added: “What was the strength of the police force deployed on the night of Sunday when there were clear indications that violence will intensify further? This is important because the forces on the ground were clearly inadequate to quell the situation, which has continued to claim more lives since. In light of these disturbing facts and omissions, only one conclusion emerges: That the Home Minister abdicated his duty and allowed the situation to escalate through his inaction.”

Alleging that both the Centre and the Delhi government remained mute spectators to the violence and failed to take effective steps to defuse the explosive situation, the memorandum said: “Therefore, there is no option left but to demand the immediate sacking of the Home Minister, who has utterly and abjectly failed in the performance of his primary and principal duties.”

The memorandum pointed to the backdrop against which the situation went out of control. “What is particularly worrying is that an atmosphere of sectarian hate and communal tensions has been spread and deliberately cultivated by certain individuals and forces,” it said.

“This violence has taken place over the course of four days, but you are aware that the seeds of this division have been sown by deliberately made inflammatory remarks of BJP leaders in the run-up to (and even after) the Delhi elections and a calculated design to foment hate and division amongst the citizens of this country.”

Indian democracy, the memorandum argued, rests on non-violence and communal amity. “It is how the leaders and institutions of a country react in times of crisis that defines how we are remembered by history and the rest of the world. We cannot be found wanting in this hour where certain groups seek to divide the people of our great nation for their parochial and petty gains.”

The Congress pleaded with the President to intervene.

“You are given the highest possible responsibility under the Constitution of India: to act as the conscience keeper of this Government and to remind it of its constitutional duty and the pillars of raj dharma, by which any just Government must abide,” it said.

“We call upon you and the constitutional office you hold, that the life, liberty and property of the citizens is preserved, secured and protected. We also reiterate that you should immediately call for the removal of the Home Minister given the gross ineptitude, abdication of duty and his inability to contain the situation.”