General elections 2019: Pragya Thakur is the BJP's candidate from Bhopal seat
The BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur on Monday announced a "maun vrat" or vow of silence after a raging controversy over her comment that Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse was a "deshbhakt (patriot)". She packed in one more apology in her tweet this morning - her second since the outcry.
"After the elections it is now time for reflection. If my words have hurt sentiment then I apologise and to atone for them, I will strictly follow 21 prahar (around three days) of silence," Pragya Thakur, the BJP candidate from Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, tweeted.
This means she plans to end her silence on Thursday, the day the results of the national election are announced. The saffron-robed BJP leader contested against Digvijaya Singh of the Congress.
Last week, Pragya Thakur spurred outrage and protests when, to a reporter's question, she said: "Nathuram Godse was a 'deshbhakt' (patriot), is a 'deshbhakt' and will remain a 'deshbhakt'. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within, such people will be given a fitting reply in the election."
She refused to apologise though the BJP prodded her to, denouncing and disowning her comments.
Pragya Thakur eventually apologised but could not escape Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public censure. "I will, from my heart, never forgive them for insulting Bapu," PM Modi told a news channel.
But the BJP also made it clear that it planned no action against Pragya Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malgaon attack. BJP president Amit Shah defended fielding Pragya Thakur in the election saying "her candidature is a 'satyagraha' against a fake case of saffron terror."
Pragya Thakur was on "maun vrat" even last month, after saying in an interview to television channel TV9 over the weekend that she was among the people who demolished the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and she was "proud" of it.
She also shocked many by declaring that she had "cursed" Hemant Karkare, a celebrated officer who died fighting terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.