'Can't have such culture': BJP MP Pragya Thakur denounces celebrating New Year

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur once again made a controversy-stirring statement on the eve of New Year. At an event in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, she said those who drink alcohol and dance on December 31 and whose day begins at afternoon the next day cannot experience novelty. Imitating the western civilisation cannot in our culture, she added.

“What novelty will they experience those who drink alcohol and dance on December 31 and their morning begins in the afternoon next day. We cannot have such western culture,” Pragya Thakur was quoted as saying in Hindi by news agency ANI.

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She made this comment days after she was booked for her alleged hate speech in Karnataka's Shivamogga. She was making remarks on ‘love jihad’ at the Hindu Jagarana Vedike's South Region annual convention where she made suggestions to illegally keep weapons.

“Keep weapons in your homes, if nothing else, at least knives used to cut vegetables, sharp...Love jihad, they have a tradition of jihad, if nothing they do love jihad. Even if they love they do jihad in that. We (Hindus) too love, love the god, a sanyasi loves his god," Thakur had added.

She was later booked under IPC sections - 153A, 153B, 268, 295A, 298, 504 and 508 after a Congress leader filed a complaint.