New Delhi: BJP leader Pragya Thakur will on Friday reply on her remarks on Mahatma Gandhi”s assassin Nathuram Godse after opposition benches demanded an apology from her and submitted a censure motion signed by 50 MPs to Speaker Om Birla.
The Bhopal MP, who faces charges in Malegaon blasts case, will reply in the lower House around 12 noon, Birla informed when Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the issue on Friday after the House assembled for the day.
Soon after the House met, Chowdhury reminded Birla that all opposition MPs had requested him on Thursday seeking to censure Thakur in the House if she does not apologize on her Godse remarks, which was later expunged from records.
The opposition took up the issue on Thursday with Congress leader Chowdhury, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran and Revolutionary Socialist Party’s N. K. Premchandran along with other MPs submitted a letter to the Speaker seeking to censure Thakur.
The lawmakers from Trinamool Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), including Saugata Roy and Asaduddin Owaisi, supported Congress”s demand that the controversial MP should tender an apology to the House.
Owaisi, who had moved a privilege motion, had asked the Speaker “if he would not take steps to save the dignity of Mahatma Gandhi”.
On Thursday, the BJP leadership punished Thakur over her remarks and removed her from the parliamentary panel on Defence and asked her not to join meetings of the parliamentary party in the remaining winter session.
Thakur on Wednesday sparked row with an interjection during DMK leader A. Raja”s reference to Godse in the Lok Sabha. The issue later triggered a protest by the Opposition. Raja had cited a statement on Godse on why he killed Gandhi during a discussion on the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019, to which Thakur reacted.