Who Will Pay for Delhi’s Shutdown? Modi Government’s Security Crackdown Raises a Brutal Question: How Much Must India Lose to Protect the System Around One Constitutional Office-Holder?

The government imposed the precautions. Why should ordinary Indians be left with the bill?

There is a question the Union government cannot answer merely by repeating the words “law and order”.

Who pays when the state’s security response disrupts public transport, restricts communications, complicates travel and makes traders question whether it is safe or commercially sensible to open their businesses?

Who compensates a passenger whose journey has been disrupted? Who pays for a trader’s missed sales and continuing operating expenses? Who accounts for the cost of deploying tens of thousands of security personnel? Who measures the consequences of restricting mobile internet? And who answers for the economic activity that may have been lost when movement across parts of the national capital became substantially more difficult?

These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are questions of public finance, administrative responsibility and democratic accountability.