BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur’s makes controversial remarks on India’s caste system

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pragya Singh Thakur on Saturday made sensitive remarks on India’s caste system. Addressing a gathering at Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore, Thakur said “for the social construct, our society was divided into four,” ANI reported.

“If you call ‘kshatriya’, a ‘kshatriya, he doesn’t feel bad; a ‘brahmin doesn’t take offence if called a ‘brahmin’, a ‘vaishya’ doesn’t feel bad if called a ‘vaishya’,” the MP said.

“If you call ‘shudra’, a ‘shudra’, people take offence. That’s because of ignorance,” Thakur said.

This isn’t the first time that the BJP MP from Bhopal has made controversial remarks. During parliamentary proceedings in November last year, she called Mahatama Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse a “deshbhakt” (patriot).

During her election campaign, she courted controversy when she said the late Maharashtra ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 terror attack in 2008 in Mumbai, was killed as she had cursed him.

Thakur was one of the 11 accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast, in which six people were killed and 101 were injured. As the ATS chief, Karkare was probing the case.