Motormouth Sadhvi Pragya hit BJP image hard

Bhopal: BJP’s rookie Hindutva face, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, has been proved too hot for her party to handle as her recent foot-in-mouth remarks have established.

Pragya, an accused in 2008 Malegaon terror blast case, had landed her party as well as her in trouble the very day she was inducted in BJP and given party ticket for Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency a few hours later.

A political greenhorn that she is, 49-year-old saffron-clad Pragya triggered a national outrage by speaking ill of Maharashtra police officer Hemant Karkare who gained martyrdom while fighting Pakistani terrorists during 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, in her very first interaction with media after she was nominated for Bhopal by her party.

While pointing a finger at the slain police officer for her ordeal in police custody following her arrest in connection with Malegaon blast incident, she had said her curse had led to his tragic end.

Her comment was not only taken note of by election commission, but also recoiled in Maharashtra threatening to put BJP on defensive in the ongoing LS elections in the western Indian state.

A worried BJP had then forced her to withdraw her statement and offer a public apology for it.

She had sparked another controversy by confessing that she had helped demolition of Babri masjid structure in 1984, reviving the issue in the elections, thus helping Congress consolidate its vote bank among Muslims in Bhopal.