Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday lashed out at BJPs Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Sadhvi Pragya for insulting a decorated dead police officer and accused the hardline leader of dragging the current nationalism discourse to a new low.
In a hard-hitting reaction to the Sadhvi's "sickening and repulsive comment" that it was her "curse" that led to Maharashtra police officer Hemant Karkare being killed while fighting the Mumbai terror attack of November 2008, the Chief Minister said: "That woman cannot be sane. No person in their sane mind can think or talk like that, and that too about a police officer who sacrificed his life for the nation."
Amarinder Singh also tweeted his anger over Sadhvi's "atrocious comment".
"Is she sane? Sadhvi Pragya has dragged patriotism to a new low by attacking decorated dead IPS officer #HemantKarkare who sacrificed himself to fight terrorism & here's an official @BJP4India candidate insulting his memory! It's an insult to our men in uniform and to every Indian." he tweeted.
"Sadhvi Pragya has not just insulted a police officer but has shown disrespect to every man in uniform," Amarinder Singh said, adding that the Sadhvi's remarks had exposed the true colours of the BJP, which had been claiming the "nationalist" agenda as its key poll plank and projecting itself as the only protector of our "nationhood".
"The fact that the two BJP leaders present at the press conference where she made her remarks did not try to stop her or make amends in any way shows that the BJP's `saffron agenda' overrides every other agenda, including patriotism and nationalism," Amarinder Singh said.
The Chief Minister dismissed as "crap" the party's (BJP's) subsequent attempt to alienate itself from the controversial remarks by calling them the Sadhvi's personal opinion.
"Every BJP member, especially a candidate, only resonates the thinking and philosophy of the party. So the BJP cannot wriggle out of its responsibility in the matter by simply shrugging its shoulders as an afterthought," he added.