If Narendra Modi thought that the pomp and pageantry of Donald Trump’s visit to India would erase the humiliation of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) second successive bruising defeat at the Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) hands in the Delhi assembly elections, then he was  mistaken.

For, what happened in the capital during the two days of the Trump visit, especially on the last day, was no less damaging to the Prime Minister’s reputation than the electoral setback. It is not only the communal violence which had the national capital in its grip, claiming both Hindu and Muslim lives, and made a mockery of Trump’s extravagant praise for Modi as an “exceptional” and “incredible” leader, the outbreak also recalled the worst period of Modi’s political career – the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Just as the rioters acted with seeming impunity in 2002, this time, too, they roamed Delhi’s north-eastern suburbs, shouting “maaro, maaro, mullah ko maaro” (kill the mullahs or Muslims) while Delhi Police appeared to be helpless spectators.

This brazen defiance of the law and the Delhi Police’s failure to act was reminiscent of what happened for several weeks in Gujarat where an estimated 1,200 people were killed while Gujarat Police was accused of either inaction or complicity. Little wonder that Kolkata’s  The Telegraph newspaper carried the headline: 'Neros dine while the Gujarat model comes to Delhi'. The sardonic reference to the Roman emperor related to the Supreme Court scathing observation at the time describing the then chief minister of Gujarat as a "modern-day Nero". The incongruity of the dinner at a time of riots was also noted by the foreign media, one of which wrote: 'New Delhi is burning as Modi throws a party for Trump’s state visit'.

However, the fact that Home Minister Amit Shah did not attend the banquet showed that the government had by then realized the gravity of the situation. Meeting were held till 2 am in the home ministry and a special police commissioner was appointed, presumably because the present commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, has been noted for various acts of omission and commission.

Among the latter were the excessive police action in Jamia Millia Islamia university while his acts of omission were, first, the police waiting for hours for orders to intervene while masked goons roamed around Jawaharlal Nehru University assaulting students. And, secondly, the police failure to arrest any of the assaulters, underlining their association with the BJP.

If the police had been advised by the higher-ups not to make any arrests, they may have been similarly cautioned about acting against agents provocateurs like a BJP local leader whose call for clearing an area occupied by the anti-citizenship law protesters comprising mostly Muslims is believed to have sparked of the violence against the "mullahs".

The Delhi High Court has heard the recordings of his speech as well as those of several other BJP leaders who are suspected of adding fuel to the fire. Although the judge has now been inexplicably transferred, the timing of the conflagration has proved to be disastrously wrong for the BJP.

If only there was a gap of two or three days between Trump’s departure and the outbreak of violence, the party would not have found itself standing starkly exposed before the world on several counts – aggressive majoritarianism and the resultant insecurity of the minorities and the inability of a 'strong' government either to anticipate an incipient threat or to control a steadily deteriorating situation.

It speaks volumes of the panic which gripped the government as Trump’s plane took off from Delhi that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, whose concern is mainly with external threats, was asked to take charge of the Delhi situation. Doval was last seen eating street food in a deserted Srinagar street to underline the return of “normalcy” to the Kashmir valley. Now, he is engaged in ensuring that normalcy returns to Delhi to stop Muslim families from leaving their neighbourhoods which have been the scene of arson and assault.

The riots may have also wrongfooted the BJP with regard to its course of action relating to the Muslim women protesters occupying a stretch of a public road in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area. After the violent disturbances and the adverse comments which the party has attracted from the media at home and abroad, the BJP will be extra careful about saying or doing anything about Shaheen Bagh, which has inspired women protesters in several other cities to organize similar sit-in demonstrations against the citizenship laws.

In a way, these demonstrations, which the BJP regards as the hotbeds of Islamic militancy, have received a shot in the arm from the Bihar assembly’s unanimous resolution not only against the National Register of Citizens (NRC), on which the BJP has backtracked for the time being, but also the National Population Register (NPR) if it deviates from an earlier format.

As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a BJP ally, has pointed out, the deviation calling for details about the respondent’s parents can be used later for the NRC. Evidently, it has been a bad week for the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Modi.

(The writer is a commentator on current affairs)