New Delhi, May 16 (IANS): BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on Thursday called Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, a "deshbhakt" (patriot).

After her statement stirred a controversy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemned it and asked her to tender a public apology for the contentious remark.

"Nathuram Godse was a 'deshbhakt', is a 'deshbhakt' and will remain a 'deshbhakt'. People calling him a terrorist should instead look within. Such people will be given a befitting reply in these elections," she said in Bhopal.

Pragya Singh was reacting to noted actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) President Kamal Haasan's recent statement calling Nathuram Godse the first Hindu terrorist of independent India. "The first terrorist post-Independence was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu. It started from there. He killed Mahatma Gandhi," Haasan had said.

In no time, the BJP condemned Pragya Singh's remark and said that she should tender a public apology for it.

"We completely disagree with her statement and strongly condemn it. The BJP will ask her why she made such a statement. It would be proper for her to tender a public apology for this objectionable statement," BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narsimha Rao told reporters at the party headquarters Pragya Singh.