Not just Pragya Thakur, BJP disciplinary panel doesn’t really punish any of its leaders

From Sakshi Maharaj to Aakash Vijayvargiya, most of the cases were referred to the disciplinary committee but there was no action, except perhaps a rebuke.

FIle photo of BJP MP from Bhopal Pragya Thakur | Praveen Jain | ThePrint

New Delhi: Earlier this week, BJP working president J.P. Nadda called Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur to his office to pull her up for her statement that she had “not been elected to clean drains and toilets”.

This, though, was hardly the first time the BJP had initiated disciplinary action against the self-proclaimed Sadhvi — in fact, there’s a high chance the party’s disciplinary committee reports were gathering dust on Nadda’s desk when he spoke to her.

Over the last two months, Pragya Thakur and two other leaders, Anantkumar Hegde and Nalin Kumar Kateel, have been referred to the disciplinary committee for their controversial remarks, but the party is yet to take action.

In the last five years, 11 cases of indiscipline have been referred to the committee by the BJP high command, with only Kirti Azad getting suspended. A member of the disciplinary committee told ThePrint that since most of the controversies involved senior leaders, the party decided not to take any action, bearing in mind the political situation. “After all, deciding not to take action is also a decision,” the member said.

ThePrint looks at some of the BJP’s most high-profile cases of indiscipline, and what happened afterwards.

Aakash Vijayvargiya

Aakash Vijayvargiya, son of BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, had been caught on camera hitting a government official with a cricket bat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed displeasure about his actions, and said such people should be thrown out of the party.

However, the Madhya Pradesh BJP has not yet taken any strict action against Aakash. He has not even been issued a notice by the state indiscipline committee, with its president Babu Singh Raghuvanshi saying that a) there is no recorded evidence of the PM’s statement, and b) that the PM had used the past tense ‘nikaal dena chahiye tha’ (should have been thrown out), which can be taken as a guideline for the future.

Asked about the case, MP BJP president Rakesh Singh avoided giving a direct response.

Pragya Thakur

Before the toilet controversy, Pragya Thakur had said Maharashtra anti-terror officer Hemant Karkare, who was killed in action during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, had died because of her curse. She also termed Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse “a true patriot”, during election campaigning in Bhopal.

BJP president Amit Shah had asked the disciplinary committee to take action against her within 10 days, while PM Modi had said he would never be able to forgive Pragya Thakur for her remarks. Yet, no action has been taken on the disciplinary committee’s report.

Anantkumar Hegde

Anantkumar Hegde, a controversy-riddled minister in the previous Modi government, had tweeted during the elections that finally after seven decades, Godse’s soul would be happy that in the changed atmosphere of the country, his case was finally being argued. Hegde was also referred to the disciplinary committee.

Nalin Kumar Kateel

Kateel, a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka, remarked during election campaigning that “Godse killed one person, Kasab killed 72 and Rajiv Gandhi killed 17,000”, and asked “who was most cruel”. His case was also sent to the committee for action.

A member of the committee told ThePrint that it had completed its inquiry and sent the reports to party chief Amit Shah about two weeks ago.

Sakshi Maharaj

After Modi first came to power in 2014, Sakshi Maharaj was the first BJP leader to invite trouble, terming Godse a “patriot”. This led to Parliament not being allowed to function for a week. Then-parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu had to intervene and get Sakshi Maharaj to apologise, but no further action was taken against him.

But Sakshi Maharaj didn’t stop courting controversy. Just before the 2015 Delhi assembly elections, he said Hindu women should produce at least four children, for which the disciplinary committee issued him a warning.

 

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

Former Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti also made a controversial statement during the Delhi assembly elections, asking people to choose between Ramzaade (born of Ram) and haraamzaade (bastards). She had to apologise for the statement in Parliament, but no further action was initiated, and she even held on to her ministership.

Yashwant Sinha & Shatrughan Sinha

Party stalwarts Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha kept criticising the BJP on issues like demonetisation, GST, the decline in the Indian economy and the BJP’s defeat in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, but the party avoided taking action. Eventually, Shatrughan Sinha joined the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Kirti Azad

Former Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad had accused then-finance minister Arun Jaitley of committing financial irregularities worth Rs 400 crore while he was president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association. He was suspended from the party, and joined the Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.