BHOPAL/NEW DELHI: A political firestorm broke out over controversial remarks by
Sadhvi Pragya
Thakur, BJP’s Bhopal candidate, at a party meeting that she had “cursed” 26/11 hero Hemant Karkare for torturing her in custody and he was killed by terrorists some five weeks later. Pragya, out on bail in the Malegaon terror bombing case, told party workers on Friday that Karkare, who was then the Mumbai anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief, had held her in custody despite lack of evidence and this amounted to “deshdroh (treason)”.
Karkare was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India’s highest peacetime gallantry medal, after he was shot dead by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Pakistan on November 26, 2008, along with senior police officers Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar. A video of the Sadhvi’s attack on Karkare immediately went viral and sparked a major row with Congress accusing BJP of “insulting” the memory of martyrs.
Though BJP maintained the Sadhvi’s comments were “personal”, the incident embarrassed the party. “BJP clearly holds that Hemant Karkare died while fighting terrorists bravely. BJP has always held him as a martyr.
Sadhvi
Pragya’s comment is her personal statement due to the physical and mental harassment she has undergone,” it said.
Late Friday evening, Pragya issued a retraction: “I felt that enemies of the country were being benefited from it (her comments), therefore, I take back my statement and apologise for it; it was my personal pain. He died from the bullets of terrorists from the enemy country, he is certainly a martyr."
In the video, referring to her questioning by Karkare, Pragya said, “I know it will be difficult for you to believe, but I told him, ‘Tera sarvanash hoga (You will be destroyed)’. He tortured me so much, hurled filthy abuses, it was unbearable for me,” she said, breaking down. “There is a ‘sutak’ (period of abstention in Hindu families) of a month when someone is born or dies in the family. That day, ‘sutak’ came into effect for Karkare. Exactly ‘sawa mahina’ (five weeks) later, he was killed by terrorists, ‘sutak’ got over,” she said, as party workers broke into applause.
MP’s chief electoral officer said, “The matter was reported by our surveillance teams. We are getting it examined. The Bhopal collector has been asked to file a report by April 20.”
Pragya referred to how Ravan was destroyed in the time of Lord Ram and how the tyrant Kansa was eliminated showed how those who commit sins are punished, a reference to her incarceration by the ATS under Karkare.
This is the second time in the last couple of days that the Sadhvi has turned emotional about her incarceration. By picking her as the party candidate against former MP CM and “saffron baiter” Digvijaya Singh, BJP has sought to make the contest an ideological clash over Hindutva. But BJP’s attempt to argue that Congress sought to create a false equivalence between Hindutva terror and groups like Lashkar and Jaish-e-Muhammed could run into a problem if Pragya continues to let her emotions get the better of her. Her lack of political experience and possible shooting-from-the-lip attitude was seen as a risk by some in the party, but the possibility of her defeating Singh led the BJP brass to back a “deep saffron” figure.
The Sadhvi told the party meeting, “The head of the investigating team called Karkare and told him, ‘If you don’t have any evidence against her, let her go’. But he refused. He said he will get evidence from anywhere but ‘won’t let Sadhvi go’. This was deshdroh (treason). This was against dharma.”
When TOI contacted Pragya over the phone, her representative said, “We have not seen the video yet. It’s only after we have seen it that Sadhvi Pragya would be able to comment on it.”
State BJP spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya distanced the party from her comment. “It’s for the person who is featured in the video to clarify whether she has said this or not,” he said.
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