An aggressive Opposition on Tuesday extracted an unconditional apology from BJP MP Pragya Thakur  in the Lok Sabha after rejecting her first submission when she apologised to the house but not before attacking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for describing her a "terrorist" when a ruling to the effect is yet to be pronounced by the court.

The House was adjourned  by the speaker Om Birla for the consultations on the issue at the lunch-time and when it resumed at 2.30 pm the BJP MP from Bhopal made an unconditional apology for her remarks on Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.

Thakur first tried to preface her apology by targeting opposition but quickly put a lid on the controversy by reading out an unconditional  apology. "On November 27, during discussion on SPG (Amendment) Bill, I did not call Nathuram Godse a patriot (deshbhakt), I did not even take his name. Still if someone is hurt, I express my regret and apologise," she said.

Before she entered the House, the Speaker had said that Thakur would read out the statement agreed upon at the meeting of leaders of different parties.

She began her statement by referring to her enemies but was interrupted by the Speaker. She then read out the statement as decided upon earlier, paving the way for normal business to resume. Her first apology was not accepted by opposition parties for its reference to other issues, as they insisted on an unconditional apology. 

Thakur had created a row on Wednesday with her remark in the Lower House during DMK member A Raja's narration of a statement by Godse before a court on why he killed Gandhi.  She had then triggered a ruckus  by indirectly  describing Godse as " Deshbhakt".

BJP which had earlier warned Thakur for not making controversial comments, this time round, acted quickly for the damage control  by sacking her from a consultative committee on defence and barring her from attending  parliamentary party meeting for the rest of the winter session. In the past Prime Minister  Narendra Modi had  expressed his displeasure over her earlier remarks praising Godse but then she was left unharmed by the party. In fact, last week , Thakur was nominated to the consultative committee .

On  Thursday defence minister Rajnath Singh had in the house disassociated from Thakur's comments saying his party condemns any philosophy which describes Gandhi's killer as a patriot but opposition parties insisted on an apology from her on Friday. Thakur had not attended the House proceedings on Thursday.

Her first apology, however, was not accepted by the Congress and some other opposition parties  as she hit out at Rahul without naming him and also claimed that her comments were twisted and put out of context.

"If my comments have hurt in anyway, I regret and seek apology. But, my comments in the House have been misrepresented and twisted," she said, without taking Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Godse's name. The controversial BJP MP  said she respects and pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi for his service  to the country.

Thakur also said,"One member has publicly termed me as a terrorist, though I have not been convicted by the court. It is an insult to a woman and a sadhvi," and added that making such remarks too was against the law. Thakur is an accused in the Malegaon blast case.

Rahul  had accused her of being a "terrorist" and claiming that her comments represented the "heart and soul" of the saffron party and its ideological mentor RSS.

Meanwhile, BJP member Nishikant Dubey urged the Speaker to allow a privilege motion against Rahul  for accusing a sitting MP of being a "terrorist".