New Delhi: An unrelenting opposition forced BJP’s Pragya Thakur, under flak for haling Nathuram Godse, to apologise in Lok Sabha for a second time on Friday after rejecting her first apology as “conditional” in which she also attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for calling her a “terrorist”.
Tendering her second apology in Lok Sabha following a meeting Speaker Om Birla held with floor leaders of all parties, the Bhopal MP said,”On November 27, during discussion on SPG (Amendment) Bill, I did not call Nathuram Godse a patriot (desh bhakt), I did not even take his name. Still if someone is hurt, I express my regret and apologise.”
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 panned 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.
The BJP swung to control the damage on Thursday with disciplinary action as it sacked her from a consultative committee on defence, and also barred her from attending its parliamentary party meeting during the ongoing session.
The Congress led the opposition charge against her with Gandhi accusing her of being a “terrorist” and claiming that her comments represented the “heart and soul” of the saffron party and its ideological mentor RSS.
Though the House had functioned on Thursday after senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh said 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, did not go down well with the opposition as she targeted Gandhi without naming him and also claimed that her comments were twisted.
“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.
She added that she respects and pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi for his contribution 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. (PTI)
