Nadda warns Pragya Thakur of strict action against controversial remarks

The latest provocation was Thakur’s comment that the job of an MP is not to clean drains, which was interpreted as remarks mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign.

Thakur was summoned to the BJP headquarters, where Nadda conveyed the party leadership’s displeasure with her comments made at Sehore in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, party sources said. An accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case and currently out on bail, Thakur was pulled up and asked to refrain from making statements that go against the party’s programmes and ideology, they said.

However, there was no official statement on it. Thakur refused to speak to reporters outside BJP headquarters.

READ | Not elected to clean your toilets: BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur

Addressing a meeting of BJP workers in Madhya Pradesh, Thakur had said that the job of an MP is to work with MLAs, corporators and public representatives to ensure development. “So keep this in mind… We are not here for cleaning a drain. Is it clear? We are absolutely not (here) for cleaning your toilets. The work which we are supposed to do and elected for, we will do it honestly. This we had said in the past, saying it today and will stick to it in future as well,” she was quoted as saying.

BJP leaders admitted that repeated controversial remarks by Thakur had become an embarrassment for the party. PM Modi had publicly expressed his displeasure over her remark praising Nathuram Godse during the poll campaign and said he would never forgive her. She had hailed Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Godse as a “patriot”, and later apologised. The BJP had said that its disciplinary panel had sent a showcause notice to her.