Pragya Singh Thakur removed from Parliament panel on defence after Godse praise

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 the example of a deshbhakt."

There was an almost immediate uproar from opposition benches and Thakur's colleagues were soon persuading her to sit down and remain quiet.

This is the second occasion that Thakur has praised Godse, a venerated figure in the right-wing Sangh Parivar circles. As the Lok Sabha elections were drawing to a close earlier this year, as BJP's Bhopal candidate, she had called Godse a deshbhakt. After the political firestorm that followed,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would never be able to fully forgive her.

But last week, she was nominated to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Defence.

Thakur is an accused in a blasts case in Malegaon and has been named in several criminal cases. She has said she is innocent.