Janjivan Bureau / Agar Malwa (MP)/New Delhi : BJP’s candidate for Bhopal Lok Sabha seat and Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur on Thursday kicked up a row as she called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin a “patriot”.
The BJP, however, condemned Pragya Singh Thakur’s praise for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse as “patriot” and asked her to tender a public apology.
“We completely disagree with her statement with regard to Mahatma Gandhi. We strongly condemn this statement. The party will seek clarification from her as to why she gave this. It would be proper for her to seek and tender a public apology for her objectionable statement,” BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said in a statement.
Talking to a news channel here, Thakur said, “Nathuram Godse was a deshbhakt (patriot), he is and will remain a deshbhakt. Those calling him a terrorist should instead look at themselves. They will be given a befitting reply in this election.”
Thakur said this in response to a question over actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s remarks that “free India’s first terrorist was a Hindu”, a reference to Nathuram Godse.
Pragya Singh was in Agar Malwa for a road show for Mahendra Solanki, BJP candidate from Dewas Lok Sabha seat.
Addressing an election campaign rally at Aravakurichi (Tamil Nadu) on May 12, Haasan had said, “I am not saying this because this is a Muslim-dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. Free India’s first terrorist was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it (terrorism, apparently) starts.”
The Madhya Pradesh BJP distanced itself from Pragya Singh’s statement.
“BJP does not agree with her statement. The party will talk to her under which circumstances she gave the statement.
One who killed Mahatma Gandhi can’t be a deshbhakt,” state BJP media cell in-charge Lokendra Parashar said.
Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah attacked Pragya Singh Thakur for terming Nathuram Godse a “patriot”.
“If the killer of the father of the nation is a patriot does that make Mahatma Gandhi anti-national?” Abdullah said in a tweet, though he did not name Thakur.
