'Rambhakt' fires on Bapu's death anniversary

New Delhi : CPI general secretary D Raja said the incident of firing at Jamia Milia Islamia was a "direct result" of incretionary comments made by BJP leaders while campaigning for the Delhi Assembly polls.

Raja told PTI that it was unfortunate that such an incident had happened on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Tension spiralled in the area afternoon after a man fired a pistol at the protesters, injuring a Jamia Millia Islamia student, before walking away while waving the firearm above his head and shouting "yeh lo aazadi", amid heavy police presence. The man, who identified himself as "Rambhakt Gopal", was subsequently overpowered by police and detained.

Former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, commenting on firing drew similarities between Bapu's killer Nathuram Godse and the accused of Jamia shooter by postings two pictures on Twitter.

The shooting incident seems to have completed India's transition from democracy to mobocracy, a tweet on PDP president Mehbooba Mufti's Twitter handle said. "Home Minister Amit Shah wants to disturb the environment of Delhi.

First, they made their leaders give instigating speeches. BJP can see defeat in the Delhi Elections and so this conspiracy was hatched out of that fear. HM is conspiring to postpone polls." AAP MP Sanjay Singh said.

The AAP also said the Home Minister should step down. AAP will approach the EC against BJP MP Parvesh Verma after he called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a terrorist.

MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "identify him by his clothes".

The comment was a reference to a remark by PM Modi in which he targeted those opposing the citizenship law, which critics say discriminates against Muslims, and claimed "you can easily make out who is spreading violence by the clothes they wear".

In a series of sharply-worded tweets the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief also hit out at Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who was handed a 72-hour ban today by the Election Commission this afternoon for making hate speeches while campaigning for next month's Delhi election.

Last month the Prime Minister hit out at the Congress and other opposition parties for allegedly instigating violence against and spreading lies on the citizenship law. Addressing a rally in Jharkhand, he accused the party and its supporters of "spreading fire... when not heard they spread arson".

"You can easily make out who is spreading violence by the clothes they wear," PM Modi added.

"What kind of police force is Amit Shah running? Delhi police is standing idly by as a man shoots at peaceful protestors," the Congress party tweeted, adding, "Is this what BLP leaders like MoS Finance, Anurag Thakur intended? Creating an armed militia of radicalised youth".

The Jamia firing took place days after Thakur urged a crowd at an election rally in Delhi to say "goli maaro saalon ko" - or shoot down traitors.

Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Parvesh Verma have been banned from campaigning for Delhi elections for 72 and 96 hours, respectively, after making hate speeches, the Election Commission said. Both will also remain off their party's "star campaigner" list, the poll body added, reiterating instructions issued to the BJP on Wednesday.

The order comes after shocking comments by both during election rallies this week, in which Thakur urged a crowd to "goli maaro (gun down traitors)" and Verma claimed those who have mounted a weeks-long peaceful sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh against the controversial citizenship law "will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters".

Verma declared the protesters will be cleared in an hour if the BJP were to come to power and "within a month, we will not spare a single mosque built on government land".

The CAA is a controversial law that makes religion, for the first time, the test of citizenship. The government says it will help non-Muslim refugees fleeing religious persecution from three Muslim-dominated countries. However, critics say it violates secular tenets of the Constitution.

Thousands, including students in multiple cities and towns across the country, have taken to the streets since last month to protest the law.

In more trouble for BJP leaders, the Election Commission has issued a show cause notice to the party's National General Secretary Arun Singh for making "unverified allegations through advertisements" against rival parties and candidates.

Godse, Modi believe in same ideology: Rahul

Rahul Gandhi compared Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying both believed in the same ideology. Gandhi, at an anti-CAA rally in Wayanad, launched a scathing attack on Modi and said he was making Indians to prove that they are Indians.

Addressing participants at "Save the Constitution" march at Kalpetta in Wayanad, his Lok Sabha constituency on Martyr's Day, Gandhi said there was no difference between Godse and Modi.

"Today, an ignorant man is trying to challenge Gandhi's ideology. He is creating an atmosphere of hatred. The ideology is the same. Nathuram Godse and Narendra Modi, they believe in the same ideology. There is no difference except that Modi does not have the guts to say he believes in the ideology of Godse," the Wayanad MP said.

Attacking the Prime Minister on the new Citizenship Law, Gandhi questioned Modi and asked who was he to ask Indians to prove that they were Indians. "Indians are being made to prove that they are Indians. Who is Narendra Modi to decide who is an Indian.

Who gave Modi the licence to ask for my Indianness? I know I am an Indian and I don't have to prove it to anyone. Likewise, 1.4 billion Indians do not have to prove that they are Indians," he said.

The Congress leader led the march in Wayanad as part of efforts to intensify the party's protests against CAA in the state.

Shooter is 17-year-old, he was going to school: Family

The shooter who fired at a protest against the citizenship law near Jamia Millia University is a 17-year-old schoolboy who left home in the morning saying he was going to school. Later, the family was to go to a wedding.

Somehow, instead of his school at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh, he landed up at the protest, with a gun in hidden in his black jacket. He blended in with the protesters for a while, even streaming live on Facebook.

Then he suddenly whipped out the pistol and chaos erupted.

He fired one shot, leaving a Jamia student of mass communication, Shadab Farooq, injured. He was able to point his gun at the crowd, shout threats and walk with the weapon for several chilling moments before he was caught by the police. His family was stunned when they learnt that he was the gunman at the Delhi protest.

The Class 11 student had been acting odd and saying strange things in the past four days, said his uncle.