Madhya Pradesh Congress has demanded that a case of treason be registered against Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha member Pragya Singh Thakur for her “keep weapon at home” remark, while her party defended the statement saying it was for women's self-defence.

Thakur, while addressing a programme in Shivamogga (Karnataka) on Sunday, said Hindus have the right to respond to those who attack them and their dignity, as she spoke about the killing of Hindu activists.

The parliamentarian from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh had also called on the community to at least keep the knives in their homes sharp, as everyone has the right to protect themselves.

Madhya Pradesh Congress media department's chairman KK Mishra told PTI that the Centre should now take action by registering a case for treason as Thakur "incited people for violence".

"She is now talking about a knife after holding a bomb in her hands. The acts of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Thakur are alike," he claimed.

Thakur is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Six people were killed and more than 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon, a communally sensitive town in north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.

When contacted about the parliamentarian's remark, state BJP spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi told PTI that Thakur had gone to meet the family of a girl who was brutally murdered.

"We see that our daughters and sisters are facing inhuman behaviour and are being cut into pieces for the sake of 'love jihad' at several places in the country. Thakur's statement is not related to any religion but related to the mental strength of all sisters and daughters for self-defence," he said.

"Love jihad" is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage Speaking at the Hindu Jagarana Vedike's South Region annual convention in Shivamogga, Thakur had said, "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." "Sanyasi says in this world created by god, end all the oppressors and sinful, if not the true definition of love will not survive here. So answer those involved in Love Jihad the same way. Protect your girls, teach them the right values," Thakur had said.

Further, pointing at the killing of Hindus activists including Harsha of Shivamogga, she asked people to keep knives at home sharp for the sake of self-protection.

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