Daijiworld Media Network (SR)

Bhopal/New Delhi, May 18: In a major damage control exercise, the BJP leadership on Friday May 17 ordered its Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to stop campaigning and not to attend the May 19 road show at Burhanpur under Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency.

The action was followed by a report submitted by a local district election officer in Madhya Pradesh to the Election Commission over BJP’s Bhopal candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s controversial remark that glorifies Nathuram Godse as ‘patriot’.

The Pandora's box opened on Thursday when Pragya, during a road show of the party in Agar-Malwa in MP, said "Godse was a patriot, is a patriot and will remain a patriot. Those who call him terrorist should look at themselves. They will be given a befitting reply in this election."

Though Sadhvi Pragya had later publically apologized for her statement, it was not enough to cool the tempers.

BJP president Amit Shah said the party has taken serious note of the statements made by union minister Anant Kumar Hegde, Pragya Thakur and its Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. Meanwhile the BJP also suspended its Madhya Pradesh spokesperson Anil Saumitra on Friday from the primary membership of the party for calling Mahatma Gandhi "the father of Pakistan".

Sending a strong signal to party workers on Friday PM Modi said, "Whatever has been said about Mahatma Gandhi is terribly wrong. It is despicable. Such language is not acceptable in civil society. Those who do so have to think hundred times. They have apologized, it's a different matter, but I will not be able to forgive from my heart.”