India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 28— After the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur a “terrorist’’, BJP dropped her from the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence, with BJP working president J P Nadda saying that BJP does not support such a statement or ideology.
Pragya is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon terror blast case. Ten people were killed and more than 80 injured in the blast. She was arrested in the case and remained behind bar for nine years before she was granted bail in 2017.
Rahul’s comments have come in connection with Pragya’s remarks in Parliament yesterday in which she described Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse as a “patriot”.
Rahul tweeted, “Terrorist Pragya calls terrorist Godse, a patriot. A sad day, in the history of India’s Parliament’’.
Earlier, in response to a question by a news channel, Rahul said, “What she is saying, that is the heart of RSS and BJP, what can I say? That cannot be hidden. I don’t need to waste my time in demanding action against that woman’’.
Praygya made the comments when DMK member A Raja, participating in a debate on the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, cited Godse’s statement on why he killed the Mahatma.
During 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign also, Pragya had called Godse “Deshbhakt”, resulting into a political storm. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his reaction, had said that he would “never be able to forgive her fully”.
Meanwhile, BJP has also denounced Pragya and said that she would be dropped from the parliamentary committee on defence. BJP’s working president JP Nadda said that “the party has decided that Pragya Singh Thakur will be removed from the consultative committee of defence, and in this session she will not be allowed to participate in BJP parliamentary party meetings.” Nadda said that “BJP does not support the MP’s statement or ideology”.
Condemning Pragya, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, “Not just calling Godse a deshbhakt (patriot), but we condemn even such thinking. Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology is relevant now as much as it was before”.
