Politicians, social activists in Haridwar condemn Pragya’s statement

HARIDWAR: Outraged by BJP MP

Sadhvi Pragya

Singh Thakur calling Mahatma Gandhi's assassin

Nathuram Godse

a patriot in the

Lok Sabha

, several political leaders and social activists in

Haridwar

condemned her statement on Friday.


Protesting against what they called "an affront to the Father of the Nation”, they demanded stringent action against Thakur.

Former MLA and senior Congress leader Ambrish Kumar alleged that what she said was in fact a manifestation of RSS thinking which was responsible for the Mahatma’s assassination. "Thanks to the BJP, the person who should have been in jail is sitting as an MP in the Parliament," Kumar said.

Purushottam Sharma Gandhiwadi, former president of Ganga Sabha — a body of priests in Haridwar — felt hurt by Godse's glorification. He demanded Sadhvi's expulsion from the Lok Sabha as well as the BJP.

"Such persons of depraved thinking should have no place in our polity," he said.

Another Congress leader to react sharply to Sadhvi's "unfortunate bid to put Godse on a high pedestal" was Rajesh Sharma, a former spokesperson of state Congress. He alleged Sadhvi was not the only person in the BJP to think like that. In fact, "she only stated what the RSS has been propagating as a philosophy."

“The party did not take action against those who openly talked of building temple in Godse's name or vilified Gandhi in several ways. The result is that Sadhvi dared to describe Godse as a deshbhakt (patriot) in the highest government forum,” Sharma said.


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