Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani led an offensive against the Congress on Thursday, both inside and outside Parliament, demanding Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury apologise for referring to President Droupadi Murmu as “Rashtrapatni”.
Chowdhury, who was heard referring to the President as “Rashtrapatni” in a video clip, said “there is no question of apologising”.
“You stand guilty of insulting the supreme commander of armed forces, you stand guilty of humiliating a tribal leader…The Congress party cannot stand the honour given to a tribal, it is not able to digest a poor tribal woman becoming the President of India,” Irani said in the Lok Sabha even as BJP MPs protested on the floor of the House.
In the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said calling the President “Rashtrapatni” was a “sexist insult” because “Rasthrapati is a gender agnostic word.”
Both Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned due to protests from the ruling party MPs over the issue.
Earlier, BJP MPs held a demonstration at Gate No 4 against what they termed was “an insult” to the President.
Chowdhury, however, was defiant. “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,” Chowdhury told reporters.