Cancel Pragya's candidature: Congress to ECI

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy on Saturday demanded that the Election Commission of India cancel the candidature of BJP leader Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal for her remarks praising Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.

Addressing a press conference, Narayana Reddy said Pragya Singh's remarks calling Nathuram Godse a 'patriot' were highly condemnable and completely intolerable.

"After God, the most important personality in the lives of all Indians is Mahatma Gandhi. All Indians not only love and respect Gandhiji, but they cannot tolerate any of kind insult against him.

How can we forgive a BJP leader who praised the killer of Father of the Nation? Election Commission of India should take suo motto cognizance of the matter and cancel the candidature of so-called 'Sadhvi' Pragya Singh from Bhopal," he demanded.

Reddy said it was highly regrettable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National president Amit Shah did not take any action against Pragya Singh Thakur and the party confined itself to just condemning the statement.

He said Mahatma Gandhi is loved and respected by one and all across the globe. Right from Class One student in India to senior citizens, everyone loves Mahatma Gandhi.

However, a few leaders of Sangh Parivar like Pragya Singh and Sambit Patra of BJP, Pooja Pandey of Hindu Mahasabha and a few others try to insult Mahatma Gandhi to get cheap publicity and also to expose their true faces, he added.

"While Pooja Shakun Pandey enacted the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Sambit Patra called PM Modi Father of the Nation", he said. A few others even proposed to construct a temple for Godse, he added.

He said those voices are of hatred and division and their existence in the same form was quite dangerous for the survival of democracy and secularism in India.

The Congress leader also slammed the BJP, especially PM Modi, for using abusive and derogatory language to address former Prime Ministers including Pandit Nehru.

He said Modi stooped down to the lowest level when he criticised Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Ministers who have laid down their lives for the country.

Narayana Reddy said that the joint press conference addressed by PM Modi and Amit Shah appeared like a drama.

He said Modi did not answer any of the questions while Amit Shah gave twisted replies to all the queries.