Kapil Sibal calls out Amit Shah on Pragya Thakur's controversial 'Godse' remark

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal questioning the Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked, "I want to ask to  the Home Minister which side is he on? One side their (BJP) members worship Gandhi, on the other hand, they call Godse 'Deshbakt'.  Sibal further questioned, "If Godse is a patriot then who is Gandhi?" Further as a fallout of the entire controversy, on Thursday, in a massive development, MP Pragya Thakur has been sacked from the Parliamentary Defence Panel, the news was made official by the Working President of the BJP, J P Nadda. Nadda further stated that the BJP condemns her remarks and she will not be allowed to attend meetings of BJP parliamentary party during the session.

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Thakur's controversial remarks

Sibal was referring to BJP member Pragya Thakur, on Wednesday calling Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a "deshbhakt" during a debate in Lok Sabha, triggering a protest by opposition members. When 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 example of a deshbhakt."

Raja said that Godse himself admitted that he had nursed a grudge against Gandhi for 32 years before finally deciding to assassinate him. Godse, Raja said, killed Gandhi because he believed in a particular philosophy. While the opposition members protested the interruption by Thakur, the BJP members persuaded her to sit down. After which, the Speaker said only A Raja's statement will be taken on record. 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.

No stranger to controversy 

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. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the campaign, had said, "The remarks made about Gandhiji or Nathuram Godse are very bad and very wrong for society.... She has sought an apology but I would never be able to forgive her fully."

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