As Congress President Rahul Gandhi stoked a controversy after he called Bhopal BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as a ‘terrorist’ following her alleged praise for MK Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse, questions are now being raised regarding the hypocrisy of Congress party as they attacked BJP MP.
Following the personal attack on Sadhvi Pragya by Rahul Gandhi, social media users are now reminding Congress party that Bala Saheb Thackeray, the founder of Congress party’s new ‘secular’ ally – Shiv Sena, had himself defended Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after she was arrested and tortured during the Congress era for her alleged involvement in Malegaon blast case.
In 2008, the then Shiv Sena chief Bala Saheb Thackeray had stood in support of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other Malegaon blasts accused and had lashed out at pro-Hindutva elements for “disowning” them. He had asked the legal community to come forward to defend the three accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni.
“The entire Hindu community should support the Sadhvi, retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni who is being framed by the anti-terror squad (ATS),” Bal Thackeray had said in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana.
Thackeray said he did not support any kind of terrorism that weakens the country and added that he had regretted the loss of life in the Malegaon incident. “But if the pseudo secularists in the country are supportive of Afzal Guru (Parliament attack convict), why should we not love and be proud of Sadhvi Pragya, Ramesh Upadhyay and Samir Kulkarni?
“Every day Islamic terrorists are planting bombs to kill Hindus in India. The latest blasts in Assam too were engineered by Bangladeshi migrants. If a Sadhvi Pragya or a Ramesh Upadhyay or a Samir Kulkarni is born in the present milieu, they cannot be blamed,” it added.
Bala Thackeray had alleged that the Congress was using the ATS machinery which is practising politics of Muslim appeasement. “The arrests of cultured and educated individuals in connection with the Malegaon blasts in an effort to crush Hindus to please Muslim fanatics in the country,” the article read.
The editorial had also slammed pro-Hindutva organisations for what it called “disowning” the Malegaon blast accused. “If Chhatrapati Shivaji and Veer Savarkar were alive today, they would suffer bouts of depression to see the passive tolerance of Islamic intimidation by Hindus,” the Sena chief said.
“If a Majid Memon puts on the black coat to defend brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in a court of law, can we expect another Memon to stand up to argue for Sadhvi Pragya, Upadhyay and Kulkarni?” Balasaheb Thackeray wrote at the end of the editorial.
The Congress party, which has been attacking Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for her comments on Nathuram Godse, seems to have no shame in joining hands with the Shiv Sena, which in the past had showered praises to Nathuram Godse also by praising him as a patriot.
