New Delhi: After Pragya Singh Thakur, more BJP leaders have come out with remarks in support of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, becoming a huge problem for the party just before the last round of voting for the national election on Sunday. Two parliamentarians – Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde and Nalin Kumar Kateel – have retracted their Twitter posts but BJP president Amit Shah has asked them for an explanation within 10 days and has said they will face the disciplinary committee.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, a BJP MP from Karnataka, compared Godse with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who has been a chief target of the ruling party in the national election campaign nearly 30 years after his assassination. Another Karnataka parliamentarian, Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde, tweeted “seven decades later, the condemned were being heard”.
Both the tweets have vanished from their Twitter timelines now. Anant Kumar Hegde put out a message claiming his account had been breached.
“Godse killed one, Kasab killed 72, Rajiv Gandhi killed 17,000. You judge who is more cruel in this??” – Nalin Kateel tweeted on Thursday, amid a raging controversy over Pragya Thakur’s comment glorifying Godse as a patriot.
Amid spiraling criticism, the BJP said: “We completely disagree with the statement made by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur about the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi ji. We strongly condemn this particular statement. The party will ask her for clarification, she should apologise publicly for this statement.”
