India's Modi faces backlash for backing terror accused candidate by Zebatweets For the latest on IndiaElections2019:
BHOPAL, India - For nearly a decade, Pragya Thakur was known mostly as the saffron-clad Hindu ascetic shuttling in and out of Indian courts, flanked by police, facing charges under an anti-terrorism law for plotting a bomb attack on Muslims.
Overnight, Thakur, who has been out on bail since 2017, emerged as a symbol of a Hindu nationalist movement that is showing increasing intolerance towards Muslims in the Hindu-dominated nation. “They are addressing a very extreme form of the Hindutva fold,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a New Delhi-based biographer of Modi, referring to the BJP’s Hindu-first ideology.
“You are saying that a saffron-clad person is a terrorist? What is this?” said Prabhat Jha, the BJP’s national vice president in central India’s Bhopal city, where Thakur is contesting. He was referring to the robes worn by Hindu ascetics.Thakur stirred fresh controversy on Thursday when she called the right-wing Hindu, Nathuram Godse, who killed India’s independence hero Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi in 1948, a patriot. “Those who call him a terrorist should look within.
Days after gaining the candidacy, Thakur boasted about her role in demolishing a 16th century mosque in the northern Ayodhya city in 1992 – an event that sparked some of India’s deadliest communal riots. Her media relations head, Hitesh Bajpai, said there was proof she was tortured, but declined to elaborate.“A woman who has suffered such torture, she will understand our issues more than anyone else,” said Saumya Srivastava, a 46-year-old housewife, at a recent rally.
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