As the Opposition upped its ante against Ajay Mishra Teni, the union minister on Wednesday lost his cool at reporters and allegedly 'misbehaved' with a journalist after the latter sought his response on fresh charges in the Lakhimpur violence, in which his son is among the prime accused.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the October 3 violence had earlier revealed that the violence was part of a 'pre-planned conspiracy'.
Mishra, who had reached Lakhimpur Kheri to inaugurate an oxygen plant at a government hospital, lost his cool after a local scribe sought his response on the SIT revelations and allegedly manhandled him.
In a video that went viral on social media sites, Mishra is seen grabbing the scribe by his collar and also heard hurling abuses at him. "Dimag kharab tumhara... phone band kar (Have you gone mad... close your phone)," Mishra is heard telling the scribe in the video. He also used expletives for the journo.
Senior Congress leader Pramod Tewari slammed the union minister for misbehaving with the journalist and demanded that he be sacked immediately from the cabinet. "Mishra must be immediately dismissed from the cabinet... impartial probe is not possible as long as he is a minister... after SIT revelations he can not continue," Tewari said.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) also said prime minister Narendra Modi must sack Mishra after the SIT revelations.
BJP, however, finds itself in a fix on the issue. "It is a difficult situation... Mishra's removal at this juncture will send a wrong message to the Brahmin community... at the same time his continuance is an embarrassment for us," said a senior UP BJP leader in Lucknow.
The saffron party leadership has refused to yield to the demands by the farmers as well as other opposition parties to sack Mishra as it fears that it may further alienate the electorally influential Brahmin voters, who are already said to be angry with the party.
Eight people, including four farmers and a local scribe, were killed in the violence at Tikonia in the district in October when hundreds of farmers held protests against union minister Ajay Mishra over the latter's remarks threatening them of dire consequences if they continued to oppose the new farm laws.
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