Complaint filed against Pragya for 'hate speech'; police yet to file FIR

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Two complaints have been filed against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Thakur on Tuesday after she urged Hindus to keep weapons in their homes.

While speaking at an event organised by the Hindutva group Hindu Jagarana Vedike on December 25 in the state’s Shivamogga city, the Bhopal MP said, “Keep weapons in your homes, if nothing else, at least keep knives used to cut vegetables sharp. If someone infiltrates our house and attacks us, giving them a befitting reply is our right.” However, the state police are yet to register a first information report.

She also urged the gathering to protect their girls from “love jihad” – an idea consistently used by the right wing claiming that Muslim men romantically lure Hindu women with the motive to convert them to Islam. On Monday, the videos of her speech went viral on social media, triggering outrage, with many urging the police to register an FIR against the MP.

Tehseen Poonawalla, a political and constitutional analyst and Saket Gokhale, Trinamool Congress spokesperson, filed complaints against the BJP leader for making “a highly blasphemous and derogatory speech against the minority community.”

Poonawalla has said that the Shivamogga Superintendent of Police GK Mithun Kumar has assured him that action will be taken in accordance with the law, after examination of the complaint. “I told him how Hon'ble MP Pragya Singh Thakur ji is a habitual offender, she has incited violence and is in violation of her bail conditions in a terror case on medical grounds,” Ponnawalla said on his Twitter.

Saket Gokhale also took to the social media site and said, “Now the excuse of "no complaint filed" doesn't exist. You're requested to register an FIR immediately.” “My only question is what action are they taking as per the law against Pragya Thakur who is a terror accused?.” 

Ponnawalla said to The Scroll, referring to her involvement in the 2008 Malegaon blast case that killed six people, including a 10-yearold girl. Investigators from Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad had found that the explosives had been packed in a motorcycle owned by Thakur.

Her arrest in October 2008 with the BJP then in the opposition had sparked political unrest, with the Congress being accused of falsely framing the Hindutva activist to malign the Sangh Parivar. This instance is not the first time where the parliamentarian has caused a row with her remarks. She had called Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, a patriot in May 2019.

She later issued an apology after receiving criticism from the opposition as well as her own party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also said that he would never be able to forgive Thakur for her remarks.