Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur has been nominated as BJP candidate for Bhopal LS seat. Thakur, on bail, is an accused by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for conspiracy and allegation that her bike was used to plant the explosives that killed six in Malegaon bomb blasts in 2008.
This act of BJP is a signal from the party and its leadership that legal due process doesn’t matter when it comes to furthering politics and ideology.
According to The Indian Express editorial, a special court in Mumbai last year found that the available evidence was sufficient to prosecute Thakur under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for terror activities, criminal conspiracy and murder. All this, evidently, doesn’t matter to those who chose her for the Bhopal seat.
For the BJP, therefore, the decision to give Thakur a ticket affirms its approval of a politics that not only celebrates hate speech but also appears to condone hateful action, editorial stated.
There is also a possibilty that Thakur’s nomination may be some retribution for Digvijaya Singh as well, who linked killing of Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare with threats he received from Hindu extremists, and joining the launch of a book that associated the attack to the RSS.
“The BJP has been winning the Bhopal seat since 1989 and Thakur may very well defeat Digvijaya Singh but her nomination corrodes democracy. It underlines the line brazenly used by a string of accused, from all political parties, that their vote count should decide their innocence or guilt — who cares about rule of law or due process”, stated The Indian Express editorial.
