The Rashtrapati Bhavan today termed comments made by senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on President Droupadi Murmu’s address to parliament as “unfortunate and entirely avoidable”, adding that they were “in poor taste” and have “hurt the dignity of the high office”. This has touched off a fresh war of words between the BJP and the Congress, the principal opposition party.
Earlier in the day, President Murmu addressed a joint sitting of the Parliament to mark the beginning of the Budget Session. Speaking to reporters after the session, Sonia Gandhi, former Congress chief, said the President looked exhausted after her long customary speech.
“The President was getting very tired by the end. She could hardly speak, poor thing,” said Mrs Gandhi, a Rajya Sabha member, flanked by her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, both MPs.
The BJP quickly labelled the comments as “derogatory” and pressed for an apology.
Soon after the comments by Mrs Gandhi, the Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a statement, refuting the allegations.
“Rashtrapati Bhavan would like to clarify that nothing could be farther from the truth. The President was not tired at any point. Indeed, she has believed that speaking up for the marginalized communities, for women and farmers, as she was doing during the course of her address, can never be tiring,” read the statement from her office.
“The President’s office believes it might be the case that these leaders have not acquainted themselves with the idiom and discourse in Indian languages such as Hindi, and thus formed a wrong impression. In any case, such comments are in poor taste, unfortunate and entirely avoidable,” it said, adding, “some prominent leaders of the Congress party have made comments that clearly hurt the dignity of the high office, and therefore are unacceptable”.
The deliberate usage of such words – “poor thing” – shows the elitist, anti-poor, and anti-tribal nature of the Congress Party, said BJP chief JP Nadda, demanding an apology from the Congress.
“Boring? No comments? Repeating the same thing again and again?” Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, could be heard helping his mother with her comments.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju underscored that President Murmu, a tribal, is not weak and has worked extensively for the country.
“I condemn the comments made by Sonia Gandhi and other opposition leaders. Our President, a tribal woman, is not weak. Droupadi Murmu has worked extensively for the country and society, they cannot even imagine. They should apologise to her,” Mr Rijiju said.
In her address, the President said the government has worked towards lifting the economy out of “policy paralysis” despite challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic and global conflicts.