Fielding a terror accused: BJP leaves the moral question to the people

The controversial candidate has fueled opposition accusations of hypocrisy and political opportunism against the BJP

Indian law does not prevent the country’s ruling party from fielding a candidate accused of terrorism in the general election, a senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party told Bloomberg News.

Pragya Singh Thakur, a self-styled Hindu holy woman who has been charged by Indian law enforcement with a bomb blast in a Muslim neighborhood that killed six people and injured 100 in 2008, should be allowed to run for office, the BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav said.

There is no technical or legal hurdle preventing her from contesting and there is a belief she has been “falsely implicated,” Madhav said in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in New Delhi on Saturday.

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“I can understand there are opinions about her candidature, and there are opinions within the party also, I don’t deny that,” he said. “But what we are saying is: by law, technically there’s nothing that goes against her candidature.” “The moral issue should be left to the people,” he added.

Candidate Crimes

The controversial candidate has fueled opposition accusations of hypocrisy and political opportunism against the Hindu nationalist BJP, which regularly condemns Pakistan-based groups for launching terrorist attacks on India. While Indian political parties of all stripes have run candidates accused of serious crimes, including murder and kidnapping, no party has yet decided to field a person accused of terrorism. Madhav said the idea to run Thakur as a candidate in the state of Madhya Pradesh came from local party officials who thought she would mount a strong challenge against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh…

Inhuman treatment given to Pragya Thakur over suspicion not fair: Ramdev

Describing himself as someone who doesn’t belong to any particular political party, the yoga guru Monday said the country was facing all sorts of challenges at present

Politics News: Yoga guru Ramdev has come out in support of the BJP’s Bhopal candidate and Malegaon blast case accused Pragya Singh Thakur, saying it was unfair to subject her to cruelty in jail for nine years on the basis of a suspicion.

“Sadhvi Pragya was made to suffer rigorous imprisonment for nine years. There is nothing wrong in restraining her if she makes an inappropriate statement but the inhuman treatment given to her in the jail purely on the basis of suspicion was not fair,” Ramdev told reporters in Haridwar on Monday.

He was replying to a question about Sadhvi Pragya Thakur‘s remarks against the then Mumbai Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare, who died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Karkare was investigating the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attacks as she “cursed” him for torturing her Describing himself as someone who doesn’t belong to any particular political party, the yoga guru Monday said the country was facing all sorts of political, economic and religious challenges at present.

“After overcoming these challenges, the country will become a world leader by 2040,” he claimed. Ramdev further said it was wrong to assume that poverty and unemployment were the only issues. “Ram and nationalism are equally important,” he added.