Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said it was depressing and disgusting to hear that those who killed Mahatma Gandhi were being hailed as ‘great patriots” by BJP candidates.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was reacting to a statement by BJP candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, Pragya Singh Thakur.

“This speaks a lot about the nature of patriotism of not only BJP candidates but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi who supports such people,” Naidu tweeted. “First, they abused Maharashtra police officer Hemant Karkare who was martyred, now it’s the turn of the father of the nation, an apostle of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi. Is this the Gujarat model the BJP wants to spread in the entire nation?” he asked.

BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Thursday kicked up a major row by describing Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse as a “deshbhakt” (patriot), a comment which her party immediately condemned and asked her to apologise for her remark.

In response, Thakur only said: “Apne sangathan BJP mein nishtha rakhti hun, uski karyakarta hum aur party ki line meri line hai (I have faith in my organisation BJP, am its worker and the party’s line is my line.” The comment by Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case, provided fodder to the Opposition Congress to target the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Nathuram Godse was a ‘deshbhakt’, is a ‘deshbhakt’ and will remain a ‘deshbhakt’. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within. Such people will be given a befitting reply in these elections,” Thakur has told reporters in Bhopal.

She was commenting on the recent remarks of actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) President Kamal Haasan who called Godse the first Hindu terrorist of Independent India. “The first terrorist post-Independence was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu. It started from there. He killed Mahatma Gandhi,” Haasan had said. Unhappy over Thakur’s controversial comment, the BJP immediately condemned it.

“We completely disagree with the statement she has made with regard to Mahatma Gandhi and we strongly condemn it. The BJP will ask her why she made such a statement. It would be proper for her to tender a public apology for this objectionable statement,” BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narsimha Rao told reporters at the party headquarters in Delhi.

Indo-Asian News Service