Facing severe backlash from the BJP for remarks calling the President of India ‘Rashtrapatni’, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday clarified on his remarks calling it ‘just a mistake’, and said that he will personally meet President Droupadi Murmu and apologise to her if she felt bad.
The term was used only once by mistake and he never intended any disrespect to the president, Chowdhury said as the BJP stalled both houses of Parliament and asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apologise to the nation.
"I can't even think of insulting the President. It was just a mistake. If the President felt bad, I will personally meet her & apologise...," Chaowdhury said.
Responding to BJP asking Congress president Sonia Gandhi to apologise for Chowdhury's remark, the latter said, "They can hang me if they want. I am ready to get punished but why is she (Sonia Gandhi) being dragged in this?"
Amid her party MP facing backlash for the "sexist insult" to the President, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had said that the former had already apologised for the "inadvertent mistake".
Without naming Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Nirmala Sitharaman, Chowdhury said that some ruling party members were "deliberately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill". There is no question of an apology, he had said earlier.
In a video message later, he said India's president, be it Brahmin or tribal, is respected by all.
"Yesterday, when we were holding a protest at Vijay Chowk, journalists asked where we wanted to go. I said 'rashtrapatni' only once by mistake. I urged the journalists not to show my video where I committed a mistake. The BJP is creating a row over it now," he said.
According to Chowdhury, the BJP does not have anything on the party and is finding "masala" against it.
"The issue is being blown out of proportion... I do not have the remotest intention of humiliating the highest chair of our country," Chowdhury said.
Union Minister Smriti Irani had raised the issue in the House and sought an apology from Chowdhury for referring to President Droupadi Murmu as ‘Rashtrapatni’, which he said was done by mistake during a television interview. The House witnessed uproarious scenes, with BJP MPs accusing the Congress of being anti-adivasi and anti-women and demanding Chowdhury tender an apology.
