Sadhvi Pragya Thakur apologises for poll remarks

Pragya Singh Thakur. Pic/PTI

Bhopal: Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Bhopal parliamentary seat, apologised on Monday for her statements during the poll campaign. She has also adopted silence.

Sadhvi Pragya tweeted, "After the election procedures, it's the time for concerns and contemplation. If I have hurt the patriotism by my words during the campaign, I apologise. To atone for the boundaries of social life, I am adopting silence for '21 prahar' (around 60 hours)."

During the poll campaign, Sadhvi had sparked controversies through her statements about Hemant Karkare, martyred in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, and demolition of Babri mosque. She also claimed that Nathuram Godse was a patriot.

However, she apologised for all the statements later. The Election Commission had also issued a notice to her and banned her from campaigning for three days. A case was also registered against her.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will never forgive BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur and others for glorifying Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse as "deshbhakt" (patriot)."Whatever statements have been made on Gandhiji or Godse are very bad. They need to be criticised as these are not acceptable to society. Those who have said so would need to think 100 times. Although she has sought apology I will never forgive her for insulting Bapu," the Prime Minister told Hindi news channel News24 in an interview.

Modi's remarks came a day after the comment by Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, provided fodder to the Congress to target the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "Nathuram Godse was a 'deshbhakt', is a 'deshbhakt' and will remain a 'deshbhakt'. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within. Such people will be given a befitting reply in these elections," Thakur told reporters in Bhopal.

As her statement went viral, two BJP MPs -- Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde and Nalin Kumar Kateel -- also came out in her support.

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