HT Correspondent

letters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party has condemned its controversial MP Pragya Thakur’s for her remarks on Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, and barred her from attending the regular meeting for party MPs for the rest of the winter session, BJP working president JP Nadda said.

Pragya Thakur is also being pulled out from the parliamentary panel on defence.

“Her statement yesterday in Parliament is condemnable. The BJP never supports such statement or ideology,” BJP working president JP Nadda told ANI on Thursday morning. Nadda’s statement implies that the party has rejected her claim that she wasn’t referring to Godse when she made the remark in Lok Sabha. Her remark led to an immediate uproar in the House. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expunged her remark from the house records but it did not help stop the barrage of criticism from political parties and on social media.

It spilled over to Thursday morning when the Congress sought action against her. But Om Birla would have none of it, pointing out that since her statement was not on record, it couldn’t be discussed.

When asked about the controversy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “That is the heart of the BJP, that is the centre of the BJP, that is the heart of the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh].” The opposition parties are also likely to move a censure motion against Thakur in Lok Sabha on Friday.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh sought to blunt the opposition attacks, emphasising that the government firmly reject and condemn Thakur’s remark on Godse.