Sonia Gandhi 'shocked' over Pragya Thakur's 'Deshbhakt' intervention on Godse

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed shock over BJP leader Pragya Thakur's comment purportedly referring Mahatma Gandhi's assassin as a 'deshbhakt' (patriot) in the Lok Sabha. During a debate in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, DMK member A Raja cited a statement of Godse on why he killed Mahatma Gandhi during a discussion on the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, Thakur interrupted and said, "You cannot give an example of a Deshbhakt." 

"Our party has said everything that needs to be said on the issue. Her comments are shocking," Sonia Gandhi said.

Furthermore, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that he does not want to "waste time on what Pragya said". "That is the heart of the RSS. What can I say?" he added. 

However, later during the course of discussion on the Bill, Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress said that a member in the House has said that Nathuram Godse was a patriot and the member should apologise for the remark. Even during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Thakur had described Godse as a patriot, triggering a huge political storm. Later, she had apologised for her statement.

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Pragya Thakur Sacked From Defence Panel, Banned From BJP Party Parliamentary Meet

Taking swift action against BJP's Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya, on Thursday, the Centre has removed her from the consultative 21-member Defence committee. Moreover, she has also been banned from attending BJP's parliamentary meetings during the Winter session. 

Thakur has previously stirred controversy in June when she called the Mahatma's assassin Nathuram Godse -a "Deshbhakt" (Patriot). She added that those who have termed Godse as a terrorist will get a reply from the people in the elections. Her remark was in response to MNM chief Kamal Haasan's 'free India's first terrorist was a Hindu' remark in reference to Nathuram Godse.

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(With Inputs from ANI)