Indian MP from Modi’s ruling party praises Gandhi’s assassin as a ‘patriot’, sparking outcry

Incident marks ‘a sad day in the history of India’s parliament’, says Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

BJP member of parliament for Bhopal constituency Pragya Singh Thakur (AFP/Getty)

An MP from Narendra Modi’s ruling party has sparked controversy by allegedly calling the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi a “patriot” during a parliamentary debate.

Pragya Singh Thakur, the BJP member for Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, was shouted down by opposition MPs after she interrupted another politician’s statement about the assassin, Nathuram Godse, on Wednesday.

Ms Thakur is a controversial figure, named as a candidate in a safe seat in May’s general election by Mr Modi’s party despite the fact that she is facing active terror charges. She is accused of involvement in the 2008 Malegaon bombings by suspected right-wing Hindu terrorists.

It is also not be the first time Ms Thakur has defended Gandhi’s killer. Days before the general election, she told supporters Godse “was a deshbhakt (patriot), he is and will remain a deshbhakt”. She went on to win the Bhopal seat with a majority of more than 200,000.

Wednesday’s incident came during a debate on the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, which will reduce the personal protection afforded to senior members of the government, and cap the security given to ex-prime ministers up to five years after they leave office.

A member of parliament for the opposition DMK party, A Raja, was giving a statement about the motivations of political assassins when he mentioned Godse and Gandhi.

Ms Thakur caused a commotion by standing up and saying Mr Raja shouldn’t use the example “of a deshbhakt (patriot)”.

Mr Raja mentioned, in a separate part of his speech, the killing of British official Michael O’Dwyer by activist Udham Singh, 21 years after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Ms Thakur has since tweeted to say she was talking about Udham Singh only.

But given the timing and the context of her remarks, she was widely interpreted by Mr Raja and others as referring to Godse. Her comments were later struck from the parliamentary record.

The BJP has attempted to distance itself from the outcry. Its working president, JP Nadda, announced that disciplinary procedures have been launched against Ms Thakur over her “condemnable” outburst.

He has recommended she be removed from both, a key defence committee and the party’s parliamentary working group, and there are some reports in Indian media that she could be kicked out of the party altogether.

“The BJP never supports such statement and we do not support this ideology,” Mr Nadda said.

The main opposition party has seized on the incident, saying it betrays the more “deplorable hate politics” at the heart of the ruling party.

Rahul Gandhi, Congress’s former president, tweeted: “Terrorist Pragya calls terrorist Godse a patriot. A sad day in the history of India’s parliament.”

And Congress’s chief whip in the lower house of parliament, Kodikunil Suresh, told The Hindu his party would “expose the double standards of this government”, less than two months after the nation marked the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi with great pomp.

“On the one side they have planned a host of functions to commemorate [the anniversary] of Mahatma Gandhi, and on the other their MP defends his killer,” he said.