Samikhsya Bureau
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he would never be able to forget Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur for insulting Mahatma Gandhi and glorifying his killer Nathuram Godse.
Strongly condemning remarks by Thakur who called Godse a ‘deshbhakt’ (patriot), Modi said her comments were ‘bhayankar kharab’ (terrible). “The comments deserve condemnation and criticism in every possible way. In a civilised society, such comments and such thinking… should not have happened,” Modi said in an interview with a news channel. “So, people saying such things should think 100 times in future.”
Modi added that it was a different matter that Thakur had apologised , but he would not be able to forgive her from his heart.
Modi’s taking high moral ground and reprimanding Thakur now has no meaning considering the fact that privately most of his followers, RSS and BJP cadres back her comment. For the RSS, Godse has always been an ideal and Gandhi a sort of villain.
This is reflected in support that poured in on social media for Thakur after she described Godse a patriot. Many of those who retweeted her comment on Twitter are followed by Modi himself. The same people had made a picture of a BJP woman leader shooting the effigy of the Mahatma recently.
After getting the BJP ticket to contest in Bhopal, Thakur kicked of a row by saying that 26/11 terror attack martyr and top Maharashtra police officer Hemant Karkare was killed due to her curse. After public outcry, she apologised for her comment. As Maharashtra’s anti-terror squad’s chief, Karkare was investigating Thakur’s involvement in Malegaon terror attack. Modi was silent after her utterances about Karkare.
By backing the candidature of Tharkur, accused of terror attack and out on bail, Modi had already given respectability to fringe Hindutva elements. His public posturing after her glorification of Godes is just to ensure that moderate voters do not ditch the BJP on May 19.
If he was so pained about insult to Gandhiji, he should have dropped Thakur. After all, he is claiming the BJP will win over 300 seats. One seat less will not make any difference and make the party’s vision clear about Godse and Gandhi.
