BJP Lok Sabha MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who is currently out on bail, was on Thursday nominated to the parliamentary consultative committee of the Ministry of Defence. The MP from Bhopal, who stands accused of the 2008 Malegaon bombings which killed 10 persons, is currently being tried by a National Investigation Agency court.
According to the government notification dated October 21, the 21-member Parliamentary Consultative Committee is headed by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, IANS reports. The 21-member panel also includes opposition leaders Farooq Abdullah, TMC's Saugata Roy, DMK's A Raja and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
However, Lok Sabha MP and Jammu & Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah continues to be under detention in Srinagar for over 100 days following the dilution of Article 370. It is unclear how he would attend panel meetings while still under detention. With the winter session of parliament currently underway, opposition MPs including Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, TMC's Saugata Roy and DMK's TR Baalu had slammed the detention as illegal.
Soon after news broke on Thursday of Pragya Thakur’s nomination, the Congress party took to Twitter to state, “This move is an insult to our nation's defence forces, to our nation's esteemed parliamentarians & to every Indian.”
Pragya Thakur, a terror accused & Godse fanatic has been nominated by the BJP govt. to be a member of the Parliamentary Panel on Defence. This move is an insult to our nation's defence forces, to our nation's esteemed parliamentarians & to every Indian. https://t.co/OqX4wGA4Dk
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 21, 2019
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections Thakur had courted controversy with her remarks on a number of occasions. She had landed in a major controversy when she called Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, a patriot.
The BJP had issued a show cause notice to Pragya over the remarks.
Thakur had also stirred controversy when she said that then Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare had died during the 26/11 terror attack because of her "curse".