Cong leader in LS says it’s slip of tongue; BJP MPs protest
The two Houses of Parliament on Thursday witnessed unprecedented turmoil with the BJP making a fiery attack on Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for his “Rashtrapatni” remark against the first tribal President Droupadi Murmu.
The heated exchanges over Chowdhury’s comments also escalated outside, triggering protests by the BJP MPs.
The Congress MPs were already sitting on “dharna” before the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament precincts, seeking withdrawal of suspension of MPs, immediate debate in Parliament over price rise and the imposition of the GST on essential food items.
As soon as the Lok Sabha met at 11 am, BJP members were up on their feet demanding an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi over Chowdhury’s remark.
“The Congress leader has disrespected the President. The Congress cannot tolerate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a poor tribal woman the Presidential candidate,” Union Minister Smriti Irani said.
Amid the furor, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the proceedings of the House till 12 noon and thereafter it was adjourned till 4 pm and then for the day. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha, which too witnessed a ruckus on the issue.
The Lok Sabha saw Irani making a belligerent attack on Sonia and accusing her of “sanctioning humiliation” of the Constitutional head of the country, demanding her apology. In his defense, Chowdhury, who is the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, said he never intended to disrespect the President and his “Rashtrapatni” remark was a “slip of the tongue”. He accused the BJP of making a “mountain out of a molehill”.
“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.
“What should I do? I said it and realised I uttered the wrong word. I even looked for media persons to whom I had said this to request them to not focus on it. However, I couldn’t find them,” he added, a day after the remark. In a video message later, he said India’s President, be it Brahmin or tribal, is respected by all.
“I am a Bengali and not fluent in Hindi. I will apologise to the President if she felt hurt. I won’t apologise to these frauds. I have sought time to meet her the day after tomorrow.
“When I am called, I will tell you and go,” he said. On a persistent asking by a newsperson, whether Chowdhury would apologise, Sonia made a terse remark “ he has already apologised”.
Leading the offensive both inside and outside Parliament, Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Irani said Chowdhury used the term knowing well that it demeans Murmu and her office and is against India’s values. Both Houses witnessed frequent adjournments due to protests by BJP members.
Accusing Chowdhury of hurling a “deliberate sexist insult”, Sitharaman demanded an apology from the Congress president, saying Sonia appointed Chowdhury as the leader in the Lok Sabha to speak and he had insulted the President. “Chowdhury’s comments were not a slip of tongue. It was a deliberate sexist insult against the President,” Sitharaman said, making a brief statement in the Rajya Sabha.
She said at a time the entire country is rejoicing at the selection of a self-made woman from a tribal background as the President,” for the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha to call her ‘Rashtrapatni’ in a ‘Pati-Patni’ (husband-wife) kind of a level, has insulted the President of India.”
“Sonia should come before the nation and apologise to the Rashtrapati and also to the entire country for the insult by her own leader in Lok Sabha.”
Alleging that the Congress has been targeting Murmu “maliciously” ever since the BJP-led NDA named her its Presidential candidate, Irani said she was called a “puppet” and a “symbol of evil” by its leaders. “A tribal woman from a poor family who created history is being continuously demeaned by the Congress,” she told reporters. The attacks don’t seem to stop even after her election to the highest constitutional office of the country, the BJP leader said.
Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal accused the Congress of insulting the President of India by using derogatory words and alleged that the Opposition party now wants to view the President’s office through the prism of caste and religion.
He said the Congress party has not only insulted our President and all women of the country but also tribals as well as the entire Upper House.
“Today the entire country is seriously concerned that the President has been insulted and it will not tolerate this,” he told the house amid uproar by ruling party members and demanded that the Congress president apologise to the President and the entire country. Goyal said Chowdhury repeated this insult again today by saying the president can be a Brahmin or Adivasi. 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.
Women BJP MPs, including Union Ministers, also held a protest in the Parliament complex against Chowdhury.
Holding placards near gate number one of Parliament House, the MPs, including Sitharaman and Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje, raised slogans seeking an apology from the Leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha.
Several of Union Ministers spoke against the comment of “Rashtrapatni” and claimed that it is Sonia who should be apologising.