The BJP today protested in the Lok Sabha slamming the Congress for demeaning the ‘women and tribals of India’ after Opposition leader and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called President Droupadi Murmu “Rashtrapatni”.
“Sonia Gandhi, you sanctioned the humiliation of Droupadi Murmu. Sonia ji sanctioned humiliation of a woman in the highest constitutional post,” Union minister Smriti Irani said in the Lok Sabha as she demanded Ranjan to apologise for his remark on the President.
Another protest led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who just recovered from Covid, saw her standing with fellow MPs with placards on the Parliament premises protesting the remark. "I demand an apology from the President of Congress party who herself is a woman has allowed her leader to speak like that. Sonia Gandhi should come before the nation and apologise for insulting the President," the finance minister said in the Lok Sabha.
After the BJP asked Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to apologise over his remark addressing the President of India Droupadi Murmu as 'Rashtrapatni,' Congress President Sonia Gandhi said, "He has already apologised."
Refusing to apologise, Chowdhury said: "There is no question of apologising. I had mistakenly said ‘Rashtrapatni’…the ruling party in a deliberate design trying to make a mountain out of a molehill". He accused the BJP of distracting from crucial discussions on price rise, GST, the Agnipath scheme, unemployment, and other issues.
"Whoever is the President of India, be it Brahmin, or Adivasi, the President is the President for us. Our respect is for the post. Yesterday when we were at protesting at Vijay Chowk, reporters asked us where we wanted to go. I told them I want to visit the President's house. Just one, I said "Rashtrapatni"...The reporter repeated it to me and I said I might have said that by mistake and it would be better if they didn't broadcast it. They (BJP) are creating a furore because of this. I made a mistake, just once and in one word," Chowdhury said in a video statement posted on his Twitter account.
Chowdhury is the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and used the remark while talking to the media during his party's protests over a host of issues.
Irani alleged that the Congress has been targeting her "maliciously" ever since the BJP-led NDA named Murmu its presidential candidate, and said she was called a "puppet" and a "symbol of evil" by its leaders. The attacks do not seem to stop even after her election to the highest constitutional office of the country, the BJP leader said.
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