PTI
New Delhi
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s “poor thing and very tired” remarks about President Droupadi Murmu after the latter’s hour-long address to the Parliament on Friday snowballed into a huge controversy, with the Rashtrapati Bhavan saying they were in “poor taste, unfortunate and unacceptable”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tore into the Congress, accusing its ‘shahi parivaar’ (royal family) of insulting the President, who hails from a tribal background, and claiming that the party has always undermined the progress of those who come from marginalised communities.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan came out with a statement to say the remarks clearly hurt the dignity of the high office.
As several BJP leaders condemned Sonia Gandhi’s remarks, party chief J P Nadda said they were “deeply disrespectful”, and underscored the opposition’s “continued disregard” for the dignity of the highest constitutional office.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju demanded an apology from the former Congress president. The Congress hit back and said every person in India has respect and empathy for President Murmu but claimed that the BJP leaders cannot digest Sonia Gandhi’s “empathy” for
her health.
Soon after the President concluded her customary address to a joint sitting of the Parliament to mark the start of the Budget session, Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, also a party general secretary, were seen discussing the speech in the Parliament complex.
“The poor lady, the President, was getting very tired by the end… She could hardly speak, poor thing,” Sonia Gandhi was heard saying in a video doing the rounds on social media.
During the discussion, Rahul Gandhi was also heard asking his mother if the President’s speech was “boring”.
When asked to comment on Sonia’s comments, Priyanka Gandhi said her mother has the utmost respect for the President and that it is very unfortunate her remarks have been allegedly “twisted by the media”.
She also hit out at the BJP’s demand for an apology over the issue, saying it should first apologise for “ruining the country”.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said it believes that “it might be the case that the Congress leaders were not acquainted 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.
Earlier, in her address, President Murmu said the pace of work has tripled in the third term of her government, which has worked with strong determination to lift the economy out of the state of “policy paralysis”.
Addressing both the Houses of Parliament assembled together in the Lok Sabha chamber, she said the nation was witnessing major decisions and policies being implemented at an extraordinary speed, with the highest priority given to the poor, the middle class, the youth, women, and farmers.
“My government is infusing new energy through unprecedented achievements in this Amrit Kaal of India’s development journey. The pace of work has tripled in this third term,” she said in her 60-minute speech, peppered with occasional protests from the opposition benches.
