MP Congress MLA says will burn Pragya Thakur alive, then apologises

A Congress MLA from Madhya Pradesh threatened to burn BJP MP Pragya Thakur “alive” for calling Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, a patriot in the Parliament.

Congress MLA from Biaora of Rajgarh district, Govardhan Dangi, said if Thakur came to his place, “he won’t burn her effigy, but burn her alive”.

When contacted Dangi said his Thursday outburst was a “mistake” made in an “emotional” state.

“We were staging protest against Thakur for calling the father of the nation’s killer, a patriot. I got emotional and mistakenly used the wrong words. But it doesn’t mean that we won’t continue our protest against her,” Dangi said. He has neither retracted his comments publicly nor issued an apology.

The state congress had staged protests against the Bhopal MP’s remarks yesterday and today a senior MP Congress functionary lodged a police complaint in Indore, alleging Thakur supported a terrorist by calling Godse a patriot.

Pragya Thakur was accused of referring to Nathruam Godse as a patriot during a debate on the SPG bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Thakur was pulled up by the party brass and told not to attend meetings of the party MPs till the end of the current winter session of Parliament.

Today, Thakur said she respected Mahatma Gandhi’s contributions and apologises for her comment made two days ago. Thakur, however, added that action must also be taken against the MP who had called her a “terrorist” despite no court holding her guilty on that charge.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had, in a tweet yesterday, referred to Pragya as “terrorist”.

BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said while Pragya’s Godse comments were condemnable, calling her a “terrorist” was also out of order.