Motormouth lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur is at it again. The Bhopal MP sparked off a fresh wave of outrage on Wednesday after she reiterated her earlier stand that Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse was a “patriot”. Thakur's comment, during a discussion in Lok Sabha, triggered strong protests from opposition members.
The house was debating the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill when DMK member A. Raja cited a statement of Godse on why he killed Mahatma Gandhi. Raja said Godse himself admitted that he had nursed a grudge against Gandhi for 32 years before finally deciding to assassinate him.
Thakur interrupted right away and said, "You cannot give example of a deshbhakt." The BJP members were seen persuading her to sit down.
The Congress reacted sharply to Thakur's statement, saying it is a perfect representation of the ruling party's "deplorable hate politics".
"Repeatedly referring to Nathuram Godse as a deshbhakt is a perfect representation of BJP's deplorable hate politics. Will PM Modi condemn Pragya Thakur's remarks or continue to stay silent?" the Congress said on its official Twitter handle.
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This is not the first time the saffron-clad MP, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, has tried to eulogize Godse. During a road show in Madhya Pradesh in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, she had called Godse a “true patriot”.
“Nathuram Godse was a patriot, is a patriot, and will remain a patriot,” Thakur had said. She, however, sought an apology later.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly censured her statements, saying he would never be able to forgive her fully.
Earlier in May, the very first day she was inducted in the BJP, Thakur had landed her party in trouble by speaking ill of Maharashtra police officer Hemant Karkare who was martyred during the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
The BJP, sensing trouble ahead of the general elections, forced her to withdraw the statements and offer a public apology.
The Modi government, in a controversial decision, recently nominated Thakur to the parliamentary committee of the Ministry of Defence, even though she is facing trial in the Malegaon blast case.