BJP MPs Nalin Kumar Kateel, Anant Kumar Hegde delete controversial tweets regarding Godse
Party seeks explanation in 10 days
Bengaluru: A day after Dakshina Kannada MP and BJP leader Nalin Kumar Kateel posted a controversial tweet against former PM Rajiv Gandhi indirectly supporting Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, the BJP MP has taken down the tweet from his official handle.
In the tweet, Kateel had added “Nathuram Godse killed one, Ajmal Kasab killed 72 and Rajiv Gandhi killed 17000. You decide who was more brutal murderer among the three”.
Another BJP leader and union minister had also tweeted supporting Godse and wrote “Seven decades later, the condemned were being heard”. He too deleted his tweet from his timeline.
Shortly after deleting the tweet, Hegde posted that his account was allegedly hacked and that there is no question of justifying Gandhi ji’s murder.
Shortly afterwards, he deleted the tweet and posted: "My Twitter account has been breached twice in the past one week and certain tweets have been posted on my timeline which has been discarded and deleted. Regret the posts attributed to me."
"Am glad that 7 decades later today's generation debates in a changed perceptional environment and gives good scope for the condemned to be heard upon. #NathuramGodse would have finally felt happy with this debate!" Hegde had earlier posted.
BJP on the other hand has distanced itself from the statements of both Hegde and Kateel and party president Amit Shah has asked them to explain remarks in 10 days, according to a report published in NDTV.
Earlier yesterday, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, triggered the debate after calling Nathuram Godse “a patriot”. She later apologized for her remarks.
My account was hacked since yesterday. There is no question of justifying Gandhi ji's murder. There can be no sympathy or justification of Gandhi ji's murder. We all have full respect for Gandhi ji's contribution to the nation.
— Chowkidar Anantkumar Hegde (@AnantkumarH) May 17, 2019
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Misuse of power, money to control election mechanism seen during Maharashtra polls: Sharad Pawar
Pune (PTI): NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed the misuse of power and money to control the entire election mechanism, which was never before seen in any state assembly or national polls, was witnessed in Maharashtra.
Pawar made the statement when he visited senior activist Dr Baba Adhav, who is protesting against the alleged "misuse of EVMs" in the recent state polls in Maharashtra.
Adhav, who is in his 90s, began his three-day protest at Phule Wada, the residence of social reformer Jyotiba Phule, in the city on Thursday.
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies, the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), have been alleging manipulation of EVMs in the recently held Maharashtra Assembly elections, which saw a landslide victory by the Mahayuti.
The Mahayuti, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP, won 230 out of 288 assembly seats in the November 20 polls, while the MVA managed just 46 seats.Talking to reporters, Pawar said elections were conducted recently in the country, and there is a restlessness among the people about these.
Baba Adhav's agitation represents this restlessness, he said.
He said, "There is a murmur among the people that the recent polls in Maharashtra saw 'misuse of power' and 'floods of money', which was never seen in the past. Such things are heard of in local-level polls, but taking over the entire election mechanism with the help of money and misuse of power was not seen before. However, we witnessed it in Maharashtra, and people are restless now."
He added that people were recalling late socialist ideologue Jaiprakash Narayan and felt somebody should take a step forward.
"I heard Baba Adhav has taken a lead into this issue and is agitating at Phule Wada. His protest gives hope to the people, but it is not enough. A mass revolt is necessary, as the danger of the parliamentary democracy getting destroyed looms," Pawar said.
The former Union minister said those who have reins of the country in their hands are least bothered about this.
"Despite widespread discussion over it (alleged misuse of EVMs) in the country, whenever the opposition tries to raise the issue in the Parliament, they are not allowed to speak. Opposition leaders have been seeking an opportunity to speak on these issues for six days, but their demands have not been accepted even once. It shows they want to attack parliamentary democracy," he claimed.
He said Dr Adhav's protest is a fine example of someone revolting against the issue and expressed confidence that his protest will create a ripple effect.
