New Delhi: The Congress Wednesday flayed BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, over her remark indirectly equating Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathu Ram Godse to a “true patriot” and also took a dig at the Prime Minister on the issue.
Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora said: “When you send a terror accused to Parliament, this is what you get. What will a person like Pragya say? A terror accused will always eulogise terrorists. But then the Prime Minister will again say: Would not be able to forgive her.”
Bora, the Assam Congress chief, said: “Godse was the first terrorist of independent India. Facts matter.”
Thakur, a BJP MP from Bhopal, when questioned about Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s remark that ‘Godse as the first terrorist of independent India’, said in Ujjain Tuesday: “The Congress has always abused true patriots of the country. They have even coined the ‘saffron terror’ term. What more insensitivity does one need? I don’t have anything else to say.”
However, she did not take the name of Godse.
It is not the first time that Thakur has courted controversy. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she had waded into controversy on a number of occasions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was later quoted by the BJP on its Twitter handle on May 17, 2019: “Statements given by Pragya Thakur vis-a-vis Godse and Mahatma Gandhi are wrong. Though she has apologised, I will never be able to forgive her.”