Pragya Thakur should be debarred from contesting elections for 'Godse' remarks: Congress

Congress Spokesperson Sravan Dasoju, in an interview with CNBC-TV18 on Thursday, said that BJP's Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur should be debarred from contesting the Lok Sabha elections for calling Godse ‘a patriot’.

“It is constitutionally a crime to defame or degrade the national hero. After all, Mahatma Gandhiji is the father of the nation and if the father of the nation has been put to such disrespect by the so-called parliamentary candidate of the BJP, if election commission has any respect for the constitution, then she should be debarred, declared as debarred to contest in this elections," said Congress spokesperson Dasoju.

"What Pragya Takhur said, BJP does not agree with that. BJP believes in Gandhian socialism, Prime Minister himself has great faith in Gandhian philosophy. We consider Gandhiji as a great man, father of the nation," BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said.

“I think BJP must be regretting the day they chose this kind of candidate. Apart from the fact that she is a terror accused, first she makes the statement about Babri Masjid, she says that she is the one who demolished it and she is proud of that fact. Then she goes and insults a national hero like Hemant Karkare and now this statement about Godse. At the end of the day, BJP must think about what kind of candidate they have chosen and it looks like as if they have chosen a Bhasmasura. A party which says that they believe in Gandhian socialism, it cannot choose a candidate like Pragya Thakur who praises Nathuram Godse," said NK Singh, a senior journalist.