Pragya Thakur is a first-time parliamentarian and was elected from Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, where she beat veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh by over 3.6 lakh votes.
“Pragya Thakur, a terror accused & Godse fanatic has been nominated by the BJP govt. to be a member of the Parliamentary Panel on Defence. This move is an insult to our nation’s defence forces, to our nation’s esteemed parliamentarians & to every Indian,” the party said in a tweet this morning.
Congress✔@INCIndi
Pragya Thakur, a terror accused & Godse fanatic has been nominated by the BJP govt. to be a member of the Parliamentary Panel on Defence. This move is an insult to our nation’s defence forces, to our nation’s esteemed parliamentarians & to every Indian. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pragya-thakur-nominated-to-parliamentary-panel-on-defence-6129396/ …
Pragya Thakur nominated to Parliamentary panel on defence
The 21-member parliamentary consultative committee is headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
indianexpress.com
The consultative committee is decided by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and not by parliament itself; it only has powers of consultation and its recommendations are not binding.
Pragya Thakur is a first-time parliamentarian and was elected from Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal, where she beat veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh by over 3.6 lakh votes.
According to a notification dated October 31, other members of the committee include National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, who has been detained at his residence in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar since the centre’s decision on Article 370 in August and was later charged with “disturbing public order” under the strict Public Safety Act.
The newest-member of the consultative committee on defence has been at the heart of at least two major controversies in recent months.
The consultative committee is decided by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
In July she admonished by the BJP for telling party workers that she “wasn’t elected to get drains and toilets cleaned“.
“We haven’t been elected to clean your drains, ok? We haven’t been elected to clean your toilets, please understand. The work for which I have been elected, I will do honestly, I have said that before and I will say it again,” she told workers in Sehore, which is part of her parliamentary constituency of Bhopal.
The 49-year-old was reportedly responding to a BJP worker complaining about the lack of hygiene and cleanliness in his area.
Only a few months earlier, while campaigning ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Pragya Thakur sparked fury from the opposition after describing Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, as a “patriot”.
Her comment sparked a furious reaction from the opposition and, eventually, forced the BJP into damage control mode, with party leader Amit Shah tweeting: “these comments have nothing to do with the party”.
Amid spiraling criticism and unrelenting attacks by opposition leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to issue a comment as well. He said he could “never forgive her”.
“These kinds of statements made about Gandhiji are condemnable and cannot be allowed in civilised society. She may have apologised, but I shall never forgive her.”
However, she was let off lightly by the party after she made an apology by way of a statement that said: “The remarks I made have hurt the sentiment of many…”.
At least six people were killed and more than 100 injured after a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded on September 29 in Maharashtra’s Malegaon.
Prasanta Patnaik