Sadhvi Pragya Thakur just after being offered a ticket by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to contest election from Bhopal had said; I had cursed him just a month before his death in the 26/11 Mumbai attack”. She was unashamed of her remarks against him.

Her remark simply exposed the duality in BJP’s stand, especially Modi’s attitude, towards the armed people. IN recent times Modi has been creating hype about the supreme sacrifice of the armed forces and personnel and has been it to explot nationalism for the electoral gains. In this background Pragya‘s statement who enjoys the trust and patronage of Modi, has come as a rude shock. She in fact has created a political furore with her remarks on Karkare saying that she had cursed him.

What was most shocking was that she retracted her statement only for the reason that “the enemies of the country were being benefited from it, therefore I take back my statement and apologise for it, it was my personal pain”. What was interesting to watch was her accepting him as martyr” He died from the bullets of terrorists from the enemy country, he is certainly a martyr”.

One thing is absolutely clear that had it not been the election time, she would have certainly not apologized. The BJP got scared of her remarks as it had evoked widespread condemnation.

BJP offering her ticket to oppose Dwigvijay Singh from Bhopal unravels the fact that the party’s religious- nationalist agenda is losing fire. Despite Modi continuously harping on nationalism and religion, he has failed to make a systematic dent on the voters. He has failed to ignite afresh the imagination of the Hindus. It attains significance for the reason that she was handpicked by the top RSS leadership to contest against Digvijay Singh.

Sangh and Modi are quite confident that she would succeed in retrieving some of the ground lost. Pragya in fact boasts of demolishing the Babri Majid structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Her claim “Yes, I had gone there (Ayodhya), I had said it y'day too, not denying it. I had demolished the structure” primarily aims at titillating the Hindu sensibilities. This is the reason that Election Commission notwithstanding slamming a notice, she continues to play this emotive card.

In fact BJP did not hide its intentions and confessed that it fielded her to fight against the "conspiracy" by the Congress to defame Hindu religion by linking it to terrorism. During the Modi rule the NIA had tried to dilute the case and give Pragya a clean chit, but the court did not discharge her.

After Modi government came to power in 2014 Pragya Thakur, the Accused Number 1 in the case, was given a clean chit by the NIA in 2015, but the trial court refused to let her off. The NIA had said there was no evidence against her, but the court had said it was difficult to accept since her motorcycle was used in the blast. The trial is still on under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. She was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in 2017 on health grounds.

Pragya has been playing with the Hindu emotions. Incidentally Nisar Sayeed who lost his son in the 2008 Malegaon blast on April 18 moved the special NIA court seeking direction for barring of Pragya from contesting the election. He alleged that Pragya has not been attending the court proceedings on the "pretext of being unwell and that she is a breast cancer patient". But the fact is she has been seen participating in programmes and giving "objectionable and instigating speeches". There is no denying fact that she has misled the court.

In public she might have apologized for her remark against Hemant Karkare but away from the public glare she demeans him; “Will you get an apology from those who tortured me for nine years? I have myself apologised yesterday... I give you the authority to get an apology from those who tortured me.”

Out on bail, Pragya is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the 2008 blast case. It is irony that a person like her has been given ticket and more than that it is quite puzzling that how could BJP present her as the Hindutva face.

The most deplorable has been Modi allowing people charged with terrorism to become candidates for the Lok Sabha. It is shocking to notice that the people who do not much of Hinduism and Hindutva are being promoted as the symbol of Hindu renaissance. Strange enough recently Modi in his election speech said that fielding her as the BJP candidate from Bhopal was a symbolic answer to all those who falsely labeled the rich Hindu civilization as "terrorist" and asserted that "this symbol will prove costly for the Congress".

Modi it appears has lost the element of political niceties when he compared her with that of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi contesting from Amethi and Rae Bareli despite being on "bail". The fact is only Modi can resort to such arguments. One cannot expect the facet of decency from Modi about them. (IPA Service)