Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has courted controversy again with her remarks after she called media persons in the district “dishonest”, drawing the ire of local journalists who demanded that she apologise and asked the BJP to expel her.
Ms. Thakur made these comments on Tuesday when local reporters sought her reaction on various issues in the State ruled by the Congress.
“I am speaking now, hear your praise. All media persons in Sehore are beimaan [dishonest],” Ms. Thakur said while laughing.
While her remarks were allegedly made in a lighter vein, media persons were not amused and a group of journalists later submitted a memorandum to the local administration demanding that she apologise for her remarks that have “angered” the fraternity.
The memorandum, addressed to the Prime Minister, also demanded that she be expelled from the BJP and stripped of her Lok Sabha membership.
Responding to a query on the ongoing rains in the State in another venue, she said, “Since Sadhvi has entered [politics] it has rained heavily”.
Ms. Thakur had visited Sehore, which is part of the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, to distribute fruits to mark the 69th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ms. Thakur has stoked controversies in the past with her remarks, including calling Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot. During her campaign, she said that ATS officer Hemant Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack due to a “curse” for torturing her.
In July, Ms. Thakur told BJP workers that she had not become a lawmaker to clean drains or toilets, an apparent dig at the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan programme. Last month, she said the Opposition was using marak shakti (killing power) to harm BJP leaders, and that evil powers were behind the deaths of former Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj.
Ms. Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case and currently on bail, had defeated her Congress rival Digvijaya Singh in her maiden election in May this year.
