BJP MP Pragya Thakur Nominated To Parliamentary Consultative Committee On Defence

FILE PHOTO: Pragya Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, is currently on bail

Controversial BJP MP Pragya Thakur has been nominated to the crucial Parliamentary consultative committee on defence. Thakur will be part of the 21-member committee headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

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.

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 September, she had called media persons “dishonest”, drawing the ire of local journalists who demanded that she apologise and asked the BJP to expel her. “I am speaking now, hear your praise. All media persons in Sehore are beimaan [dishonest],” Thakur said while laughing.

In July, 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.

In August, she had 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.