Defending Pragya

Pragya THAKUR is controversy’s child, duly adopted by the BJP. The Bhopal MP proudly claims to have been among the ‘kar sevaks’ who demolished Babri Masjid. Soon after the saffron party welcomed her into its fold in April this year, the Hindutva proponent fired an outrageous salvo. She declared that anti-terror squad officer Hemant Karkare was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks as she had ‘cursed’ him for torturing her in custody. The 2008 Malegaon blast accused then called Gandhi’s killer Godse a ‘deshbhakt’, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to proclaim that he could never forgive Pragya from the heart, whatever that meant. Disciplinary proceedings were apparently initiated against her, but the matter was swept under the carpet amid the post-poll celebrations. Six months later, the ruling BJP has condoned all her indiscretions in one go by appointing her to a 21-member parliamentary consultative committee on defence.

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In a bid to defend the indefensible, the party has argued that Pragya can help in framing the right methodology so that innocents are not victimised the way she was (by the UPA government). The top brass is convinced that she remains untainted in the terror case, even though the court is yet to acquit her and she continues to face trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. This unstinting support has emboldened her to put her foot in the mouth on a regular basis. In July, the MP told a gathering of party workers that she had not become a lawmaker to clean drains or toilets, a disparaging allusion to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Modi government’s flagship programme dedicated to the Father of the Nation. Recently, she was the lone BJP MP in Madhya Pradesh who skipped the launch of a padyatra to commemorate Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

Pragya has repeatedly got away with insulting the Mahatma in one way or the other. Rather than showing her the door or keeping her on a tight leash, the BJP has let this Godse supporter run amok. How her curses and ‘maarak shakti’ will help to fortify the BJP’s politics is anybody’s guess.