BJP leader Pragya Thakur has come under the scanner again for calling Nathuram Godse a patriot. During a debate on the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, Thakur referred to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a ‘deshbhakt’. The Bhopal MP’s remarks came as a rebuttal to DMK leader A Raja citing a statement of Godse on why he killed Gandhi. Thakur interrupted Raja and said that “You cannot give example of a deshbhakt.”
Thakur’s remark created a furore in the house with not just the Opposition protesting it, but her own party leaders urging her to sit down and not make another remark.
Raja had said that Godse himself admitted that he had nursed a grudge against Gandhi for 32 years before finally deciding to assassinate him. This was Raja’s argument for basing security on threat perceptions and not political reasons. The SPG (Amendment) Bill was passed in the House on Wednesday which will now withdraw SPG cover to former prime ministers and their immediate families fice years after they complete their term.
This is the second time that Pragya Thakur has called Nathuram Godse a patriot in the public space. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in May, the Bhopal MP had ignited a storm saying that Godse was a patriot and would remain one. “Nathuram Godse was a deshbhakt (patriot), is a ‘deshbhakt’ and will remain a ‘deshbhakt’. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within, such people will be given a fitting reply in the election,” she had said. Thakur later apologised saying that she did not intend to hurt anyone’s feelings.
A day after she made the statement, Prime minister Narendra Modi told a television channel that he would never be able to forgive her for it. “In a civilised society, there is no place for statements such as those made by Sadhvi Pragya. It should be condemned,” PM Modi had said. “The party may have forgiven her. But I will never be able to forgive her for this from my heart,” he added.
