Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in August this year is back in the news for making provocative statements. At a pro-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest which he was leading on Friday night in Delhi despite Section 144 being imposed there, he and his followers were heard chanting “shoot the traitors” as they marched on with their protest. This was an apparent reference to the people who were opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

In his further tweets he went on to criticise the anti-CAA protestors saying that the crowds coming out of mosques were secular, but the Hindus were deemed to be communal; that the people who vandalized public property were peaceful, but Hindus were considered violent.

He was told off by many prominent Twitter users for his provocative slogans.

However, Mishra continued to be defiant and asked his critics what he should call the ones who were burning stations, trains, police stations, buses, etc – innocents or traitors?

However, these open calls for violence by the BJP have gone unnoticed by the police. Nobody has questioned the pro-CAA crowd who was on the street in spite of the Section 144 being imposed. The police only attacked the ones who opposed the Act.

Mishra has been a repeat hate speech offender. In October a complaint was registered against him when he tweeted, “"If you want pollution to come down, then you should reduce these firecrackers and not the ones burst on Diwali." He had put up a picture of a Muslim family in his tweet.

BJP has now resorted to communal politics after unexpected protests against the CAA. Karnataka BJP minister CT Ravi too threatened the public saying that if the ‘majority’ (Hindus) would lose its patience, there would be a ‘Godhra-like’ situation in the country.

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