Anand Mahindra, Rathin Roy join chorus against Pragya Thakur’s ‘Godse is a patriot’ remark
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Anand Mahindra, Rathin Roy join chorus against Pragya Thakur’s ‘Godse is a patriot’ remark

BJP’s Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur faces criticism across the board for insensitive comments. Even PM Modi says won’t be able to ‘forgive her’.

Remya Nair    
Pragya Singh Thakur

BJP candidate Pragya Singh Thakur at a press conference in Bhopal | PTI File Photo

New Delhi: It wasn’t just opposition leaders or critics who spoke up against Pragya Singh Thakur’s Nathuram Godse remark, condemnation also came from the unlikeliest of quarters.

On Friday, leading industrialist Anand Mahindra and economist Rathin Roy joined opposition leaders in criticising Thakur’s remark calling the killer of Mahatma Gandhi a “patriot”.

In what was a rare political comment by an Indian industrialist, Mahindra called India “the land of the Mahatma”, and went on to question if “we” were to become the “Taliban”, destroying “statues that sustain us”.

Thakur is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s candidate from the Bhopal constituency in Madhya Pradesh and an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. She has been in the middle of a series of controversies ever since her candidature was announced a month ago.

She had earlier made derogatory comments against Hemant Karkare, the former chief of the Maharashtra anti-terror squad who died in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Rathin Roy, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory council, also questioned Thakur’s candidature Thursday, but clarified that he was making the comments as a citizen of India.

In his comments made on social networking platform Twitter, Roy blamed the politicians for their “complicity”.

ThePrint reached Roy, who also heads the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, for further comment but he declined.

Also read: Sadhvi Pragya’s Karkare rant ‘embarrasses’ BJP, which sees her as a ‘double-edged sword’

BJP action

Looking to distance itself from Thakur’s comments, the BJP said they do not reflect the party’s view.

On Friday, the party’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, censured Thakur for her remarks. In an interview to media outlet News24, Modi said “he’ll never be able to forgive Thakur” for her comments.

Earlier in the day, BJP president Amit Shah said the comments by Thakur — and two other party leaders — have been sent to the BJP’s disciplinary committee for review.

The action against Thakur came hours after she reportedly “apologised” for her comments, saying her statements have been “twisted by the media”.

‘Truth about RSS-BJP’

Opposition parties, however, have been quick to latch on to Thakur’s statements to question the BJP.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the Congress, said on Twitter, “बापू का हत्यारा देशभक्त? हे राम! Distancing yourself from your candidate is not enough. Nationalistic luminaries of the BJP, have the guts to spell out your stand.”

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “The truth about where RSS-BJP stands on terror gets clearer all the time. A senior Minister in Modi’s cabinet said Godse was not a terrorist, now terror-accused Pragya Thakur calls the murderer of Gandhi ji a ‘deshbhakt’. The BJP remains inspired by the killers of the Mahatma.

Yechury added that this was the reason why “Sardar Patel banned RSS after Gandhi’s assassination. An organisation which supports a terror accused even today. This is its reality.”