'India v/s Pakistan' tweet: Kapil Mishra replies to election body
BJP's Kapil Mishra, whose communal tweet before Delhi Assembly polls sparked controversy, has told the Returning Officer that his words were taken out of context. Mishra, who has been fielded from Model Town, said he didn't make the comments in a rally, so didn't violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). Delhi will vote on February 8 and results will be announced on February 11.
Yesterday, Mishra called Shaheen Bagh, the place in Delhi where women have been sitting on the road to protest against Citizenship Amendment Act for weeks, an entry point of Pakistan. "Pakistan is entering through Shaheen Bagh and mini-Pakistans are being created in Delhi...Shaheen Bagh, Chand Bagh, Inderlok," he tweeted in Hindi. In another tweet, he compared February 8 polls to India v/s Pakistan match.
Mishra was served a notice by the election body and asked to file a response within a day. In his reply, the former AAP leader said he was responding to Manish Sisodia, the Deputy Chief Minister, for his remarks that he stood with Shaheen Bagh protesters. Sisodia wants to use a law and order situation for political mileage, Mishra claimed in his reply.
Then, launching an attack on Pakistan, Mishra said rogue elements from across the border are using women to "propagate their seditious ideals and hurt India administratively and economically". "This is a well-known tactic played by our western neighbors Pakistan, who have not allowed the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to prosper and has attacked it through proxies, mujahideens," he went on.
"The protesters in Shaheen Bagh are neither in my constituency nor my voters hence my statement will have no impact on them. I stand by my country and like in the past have always upheld interests of the nation over and above everything," he added.
After the controversy, the election body directed the micro-blogging website to delete the highly communal tweet. The tweet referring to "mini Pakistans" is "highly objectionable" and "appeals to communal feelings", the body told Twitter in a letter, claimed NDTV. At the time of the press, the India v/s Pakistan tweet was still up on the website.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Mishra, who was once close to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, made to the news because of his communal rants. After the controversial CAA prompted protests across the nation, he took out a rally claiming that the "traitors" should be shot at. A video of his actions went viral with many asking Twitter to suspend his account.
