A Delhi court has dismissed a plea by BJP minister Kapil Mishra challenging a magisterial order summoning him in an FIR filed in 2020 over his tweets, in which he alleged that the AAP and Congress had created a “mini-Pakistan” at Shaheen Bagh and that the then Assembly polls would be a contest between “India and Pakistan.”
“The word ‘Pakistan’ is very skillfully woven by the revisionist in his alleged statements to spew hatred, careless of the communal polarization that may ensue in the election campaign, only to garner votes,” said special judge Jitendra Singh of Rouse Avenue Court.
The FIR against Mishra was registered after a letter from the office of the Returning Officer alleged that he had violated the Model Code of Conduct and the Representation of the People Act.
Mishra allegedly made the tweets to promote enmity between communities in connection with the Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections, 2020.
The judge observed that there has been a trend in India to resort to communally charged speeches to garner votes during elections.
“This is the outcome of the politics of divisiveness and exclusion, which threaten the democratic and plural fabric of the country. The divide-and-rule policies of the colonialists are sadly still in practice in India,” the court noted.
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