New Delhi: Recent controversial comments by its leaders on Nathuram Godse have put the BJP in a spot of bother. Party president Amit Shah has categorically distanced the BJP from the statements and has said that the remarks were their personal opinions. "Statements of Ananthkumar Hegde, Pragya Thakur and Nalin Kateel have been taken seriously and sent to the disciplinary committee," Shah said in a tweet today.

Cracking the whip against the errant leaders, he said the committee will seek explanation from all the three leaders and will submit the report to the party within 10 days.

Two MPs Anant Kumar Hegde and Nalin Kumar Kateel have retracted their Twitter posts while the saffron party’s Bhopal candidate Pragya Singh Thakur tendered an apology on Thursday night saying she respected Mahatma Gandhi as his work for the country cannot be forgotten. Thakur had ignited a political storm by claiming that the Gandhi's assassin was a patriot and will remain one.

Nalin Kumar Kateel, an MP from Karnataka, compared Godse with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Thursday.


Kateel tweeted saying that, "Godse killed one, Kasab killed 72, Rajiv Gandhi killed 17,000. You judge who is more cruel in this??"

On reports of his remarks on Twitter about Nathuram Godse, Hegde claimed his account was 'hacked'.

"My Twitter account has been breached twice in the past one week and certain tweets have been posted on my timeline which has been discarded and deleted. Regret the posts attributed to me."


"My account was hacked since yesterday. There is no question of justifying Gandhi ji's murder. There can be no sympathy or justification of Gandhi ji's murder. We all have full respect for Gandhi ji's contribution to the nation," he posted.

The Congress yesterday demanded an unconditional apology from PM Narendra Modi and punitive action against Pragya Singh Thakur, including withdrawal of her candidature from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.