2 complaints filed against Pragya Singh Thakur over alleged hate speech
Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale filed a complaint with Shivamogga police superintendent GK Mithun Kumar, saying Thakur made extremely “inflammatory remarks designed to incite violence between different communities”
At least two complaints have been filed against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur over her alleged hate speech in Karnataka’s Shivamogga on Sunday.
Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale filed a complaint with Shivamogga Police superintendent GK Mithun Kumar, saying Thakur made extremely “inflammatory remarks designed to incite violence between different communities.” He added she encouraged disruption of law and order by advocating the use of weapons.
“In her speech, Pragya Singh Thakur said, those who do ‘love jihad’, should be given a similar response. Keep your girls safe, strengthen their values, and keep weapons in your homes,” Gokhale said in his complaint.
Hindu groups use the term love jihad to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women.
In another complaint, Tehseen Poonawalla alleged Thakur made a “highly blasphemous and derogatory speech against the minority community.”
He said Thakur’s speech was an open call for use of arms leading to mob violence against the minority community. “...[the] speech has the potential effect of intolerance, hatred, violence inter alia against a particular community which fairly and squarely constitutes an offence under...the Indian Penal Code.”
Congress leader Priyank Kharge called it unfortunate that a Member of Parliament made such comments. He added they will also file a complaint against Thakur. “She is a terror accused. I do not know why Karnataka is encouraging such an atmosphere.”
Thakur is one of the accused in the September 2008 bomb blast near a mosque in Maharashtra’s Malegaon that left six people dead.