Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday strongly condemned the statement of BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in which she termed assassin of Mahatma Gandhi a patriot.
Baghel in a tweet had questioned the ability of such a person to enter the parliament of the country.
Baghel in the tweet said “the intention and ideology of the BJP has come to the fore with the statement of this BJP leader. It is horrible that a person who is terming killer of Mahatma Gandhi a patriot is seeking entry to the parliament”.
Notable, Pragya, an accused in the Malegaon blast case ignited a fresh controversy on Thursday by claiming that Nathuram Vinayak Godse “is and will remain a patriot”.
Talking to a news channel in Madhya Pradesh, she said, “Nathuram Godse was a Deshbhakt (patriot), he is and will remain a ‘Deshbhakt’. Those calling him a terrorist should instead look at themselves. They will be given a befitting reply in this election.”
Pragya said this in response to the remark made by actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan that Independent India's first extremist was a Hindu, with a reference to Godse.
This is not the first time her extreme views have embarrassed the BJP. Earlier she had also made derogatory comment on the martyrdom of IPS officer and head of Mumbai police’s anti-terrorist squad Hemant Karkare, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.