assembly-elections

Updated: Sep 01, 2020 01:09 IST

Kapil Mishra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Model Town in Delhi Assembly elections, has told the election office that his tweets have been taken out of context and mis-represented to stoke differences.

In his response to the showcause notice by the Returning Officer, Mishra said that his tweets have nothing to do with elections in Delhi. These remarks, said Mishra, were not made at an election rally, so he should not be held guilty of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which has come into force after the announcement of election schedule in Delhi.

“I was responding to Manish Sisodia, the star campaigner of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who had stated that he stands with the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. Sisodia’s comments at the peak of Delhi election campaign is a blatant attempt to derive political mileage from a prevailing law and order situation purely on religious lines,” Mishra said in his reply.

Then he trained his guns on Pakistan. “It is likely that in these protests, there are present separatists and rogue elements from across the border, using women as shield to propagate their seditious ideals and hurt India administratively and economically. Falsehood is being spread with respect to the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 to create panic and fear among Indian citizens who are not even affected by the said act in any manner. This is a well-known tactic played by our western neighbours Pakistan, who have not allowed the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to prosper and has attacked it through proxies, mujahideens in all these decades to hurt aspirations of locals intending to turn them against the Union of India,” Mishra said.

Elements across the border from Pakistan solely intend to destabilise our nation and such irresponsible conduct/statements by our leaders in powers, namely the star campaigner, is playing into their hands,” he further said in his statement.

He also appealed to the protesters in Shaheen Bagh to end their protest, saying “we should not fall in the trap of seditious groups funded by Pakistan”. “The protesters in Shaheen Bagh are neither in my constituency nor my voters hence my statement will have no impact on them,” Mishra said.

“I swear by the Constitution of India and abide by its values. I stand by my country and like in the past have always upheld interests of the nation over and above everything,” he added.

On Thursday, Mishra had posted on Twitter that the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi are going to be a match between India and Pakistan, alleging that Pakistan-backed groups are present in Shaheen Bagh, where a protest against the CAA has been going on for over a month. He also accused Congress and AAP of creating “mini Pakistans” in Delhi.

He later defended his tweets and said whatever has been said is true, and that he will not take down his tweets. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has, meanwhile, written to micro-blogging website Twitter to delete Mishra’s tweets. The ECI said that his post is “highly objectionable” and “appeals to communal feelings”.