Day after Kapil Mishra's ultimatum, riots break out between pro & anti-CAA agitators
New Delhi: A series of violent riots broke out when clashes between anti-CAA and pro-CAA demonstrators escalated in North-East Delhi — a day after BJP leader Kapil Mishra gave an ultimatum to the Delhi Police to clear anti-CAA protesters from the larger Jafrabad area where most of the riots were seen on Monday. In fact, the riots had begun on the same day Mishra made his comments, "warning" Delhi Police to act before US President Donald Trump left India, as after that he and his supporters would take matters into their own hands.
Sequence of events
On Sunday afternoon, Mishra, who was the BJP candidate for Model Town constituency this Delhi assembly election, went to the anti-CAA protest site in Jafrabad Metro station with his supporters and said that he would stand down with his supporters and listen to the Delhi Police only as long as Trump was in India. Mishra can be seen talking to his supporters as DCP (North East) Ved Prakash Surya stood beside him without acting.
Mishra declared that if the Delhi Police could not clear anti-CAA protesters from Jafrabad and Chand Bagh areas, he would take matters into his own hands and "do the needful" along with his supporters. The BJP leader said that he would be forced to act with his supporters if Police do not act. In fact, Mishra has tweeted the video where he can be seen making threats with a statement that translates to: "Three-day ultimatum to Delhi Police - If you cannot clear the protesters from Jafrabad and Chand Bagh don't try to reason with us, we won't listen to you either. Just three days."
Hours after this tweet, CAA supporters were seen accumulating stones in trucks near Jafrabad and Maujpur areas and rioting has begun in Karawal Nagar by Sunday night, which spread to other nearby areas by Monday, when Mishra again tweeted saying, "We will not let other Shaheen Baghs come up in Delhi." He also tweeted on Monday saying that the rioting was being done by anti-CAA protesters and only on Monday evening did he post an appeal, calling for people to show restraint and maintain peace.
Several people living in Kardampuri and Maujpur area said that stone pelting was mostly observed by groups of what seemed like CAA supporters. One resident of the Maujpur area said that communal tensions prevailed in colonies on Monday. He said that Hindu households were marking their homes with saffron flags out of fear so that rioters do not harm them or burn their houses.
On the other hand, Ziyauddin, an MA student from Jamia Millia Islamia who lives in Kardampuri said that people who seemed to be CAA supporters were lobbing stones at protesters and also burnt the protest tents at Kardampuri. He said, "we could see police lobbing tear gas shells from the same side where the CAA supporters were pelting stones from."
A pattern of speech
Days ago, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari had said that Mishra's statements during the election campaign amounted to hate speech and that such politicians should be barred from contesting polls. Tiwari had also said that he would remove such people from the party if he could. Mishra had led a rally before the assembly elections with pro-CAA demonstrators, where the slogan — "desh ke gaddaron ko goli maaro saalo ko" was first popularised, following which several CAA supporters have adopted the slogan to target the anti-CAA protesters.
During his campaign for the assembly election in 2020, Mishra had also been barred from campaigning by the Election Commission of India for essentially branding all anti-CAA protesters as Pakistanis. Mishra had insinuated that the election was between India and Pakistan and that places like Shaheen Bagh had been infiltrated by Pakistanis.
