New Delhi: BJP MP from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir Tuesday called for strict action against any party leader, be it former MLA and now a BJP leader Kapil Mishra or someone else, if he has made an inflammatory speech.
“No matter who the person is, whether he is Kapil Mishra or anyone else, representing any party, if he has given any provocative speech, then strict action should be taken against that person,” Gambhir told reporters when asked to respond to ‘inflammatory’ speeches made by Mishra.
On Sunday, Mishra gave a three-day ultimatum to the Delhi Police to clear the streets in Jaffrabad and Chand Bagh where protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were going on. He had said if the police failed to do it, “we would not even listen to you if the roads are not vacated”.
Gambhir was speaking to reporters outside a hospital in east Delhi’s Patparganj where he had gone to visit some Delhi Police personnel, who got injured in the violent clashes that erupted between pro and anti-CAA protesters in northeast Delhi.
The death toll in the violence climbed to eight Tuesday, with fresh incidents of stone-pelting and vehicles being burnt reported from Maujpur, Babarpur and Shivpuri areas.
Gambhir’s call for action against Mishra comes days after Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari said politicians who give hate speeches should be barred from contesting elections.
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What Mishra had said
On 23 February, Mishra, who led a pro-CAA protest in Maujpur, posted on Twitter a video of himself delivering a speech.
“We will maintain peace until (US President) Donald Trump is in India. After that, we refuse to listen to even the police if the roads are not cleared…. we will be forced to hit the streets,” he is heard saying in the video.
https://twitter.com/KapilMishra_IND/status/1231544492596981760?s=20
According to BJP sources, many leaders in the Delhi unit are upset with the remarks made by Mishra.
“He has been making one statement after the other. It is a situation of riot and such statements can prove dangerous. No one is supporting or backing his statement in the party,” said a Delhi BJP functionary.
Mishra & his controversial tweets
Mishra is known for making ‘inflammatory’ remarks.
During campaigning for Delhi elections, Mishra had ran into trouble with the Election Commission for a controversial tweet in which he likened the election in the national capital to a India versus Pakistan contest.
The EC had asked Twitter to take down the tweet and a show-cause notice was also issued to him. The Delhi Police had even filed an FIR against Mishra on the orders of the EC.
In another controversial tweet, Mishra had said Delhi is seeing the rise of “mini-Pakistans”, referring to the anti-CAA protests.
पाकिस्तान की एंट्री शाहीन बाग में हो चुकी हैं
दिल्ली में छोटे छोटे पाकिस्तान बनाये जा रहे हैं
शाहीन बाग, चांद बाग, इंद्रलोक में देश का कानून नहीं माना जा रहा
पाकिस्तानी दंगाइयों का दिल्ली की सड़को पर कब्जा हैं https://t.co/jcq1PgzXb7
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) January 23, 2020
The EC had also imposed a 48-hour campaigning ban on Mishra for his controversial tweets.
Also read: Gautam Gambhir ‘missing’ posters surface after he skips MPs’ meeting on Delhi pollution