Newsmaker: Cultivating image of Hindutva ambassador Narottam Mishra

His career in politics began after he won the students' election as an undergrad and became the youngest president

Narottam Mishra, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Madhya Pradesh, was perhaps prescient when on December 26, 2020, he proclaimed what fate awaited Muslim stone-throwers and trouble-makers in his state: “They will be removed from where the stones were thrown.”

Sure enough, that day, Abdul Rafeeq and his family of 19 were out on the streets of Ujjain’s Begum Bagh after their house was demolished because Abdul was identified as a stone-thrower on a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) procession that wended its way through the minority-dominated areas, reportedly raising provocative slogans. The BJYM is the BJP’s youth wing, with