New Delhi: Pragya Thakur strikes again unmindful of the rebuke she got from PM Modi during the general election campaign, Thakur again went off the tangent and declared in Parliament that ‘‘Nathuram Godse was a desh bhakt.’’
The BJP MP from Bhopal made the statement while the Lok Sabha was discussing the Special Protection Group (SPG) Amendment Bill, 2019. She was responding to DMK MP A. Raja’s reference to Gandhi assassination in his speech, while making a point on the SPG (Amendment) Bill.
So, when DMK member A Raja cited a statement of Godse as to why he had killed Mahatma Gandhi, Thakur interrupted and said, "You cannot give the example of a desh bhakt."
Raja responded that Godse himself had admitted that he had nursed a grudge against Gandhi for 32 years before finally deciding to assassinate him.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi tried to bail out Thakur and explained to PTI that she did not support Godse and was only speaking about revolutionary Udham Singh.
"According to Thakur, she did not say anything about Nathuram Godse; instead, she was talking about Udham Singh, the revolutionary who killed General Dyer," Joshi told PTI.
He further claimed that when Pragya was speaking during the debate, the microphone was not on and her utterances could not be taken on record.
The Congress lost no time in attacking Thakur. Congress left no stone unturned to take on the BJP. "Repeatedly referring to Godse as a "desh bhakt" is a perfect manifestation of BJP's deplorable hate politics. Will PM Modi condemn Pragya Thakur's remarks, or continue to stay silent?" the Congress tweeted.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala also slammed Thakur. He tweeted, "The country is celebrating the 150th year of Gandhi Jayanti, and BJP MP Pragya Thakur is hailing Gandhi's killer Godse as a 'martyr'."
"BJP members, who believe in Godse's ideology but pretend to be Gandhian, today shed their masks in the Lok Sabha," he added.
'Let us see what action the BJP leadership will take against Pragya Thakur. The nation can't live with the ecosystem of Godse promoters, or else father of the nation shall himself relinquish the position', said Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, RJD national spokesperson.
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