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Multiple adjournments in both the Houses and suspension of more Opposition members in Parliament — Wednesday’s proceedings of the Monsoon Session were marked with chaos as Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Nirmala Sitharaman expressed outrage over Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s remarks referring to President Droupadi Murmu as “Rashtrapatni”.
🔴 A video clip of Chowdhury speaking with a national TV channel on Wednesday was circulated on social media. Chowdhury was protesting along with other Congress leaders against the Enforcement Directorate’s summoning of party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi. With the party leaders being stopped from going to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to mark their protest, Chowdhury stated that “India’s Rashtrapati… Rashtrapatni was for everyone”.
🔴 BJP MPs gathered at the Parliament complex and protested against Chowdhury’s remarks, demanding an apology from him. The ruling party slammed the Congress for “demeaning women and the tribals of India”.
🔴 In the Lok Sabha, Irani, too, demanded an apology from Chowdhury. “You stand guilty of insulting the supreme commander of the 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,” she said.
🔴 In the Rajya Sabha, meanwhile, Sitharaman remarked that calling the President “Rashtrapatni” was a “sexist insult” because “Rashtrapati is a gender agnostic word.”
🔴 Leaders of the ruling party have also demanded an apology from Sonia Gandhi. In Lok Sabha, BJP women MPs were shouting “Sonia Gandhi maafi mango”. Hearing this, Sonia went up to talk to Rama Devi, a senior BJP MP and one of the presiding officers for the Lok Sabha. Apparently, Gandhi asked why her name was being dragged into the controversy. Sonia was seen saying something to Irani, who was then heard asking, “how can you talk to me like this and that she (Sonia Gandhi) is intimidating us,” Congress sources told The Indian Express.
🔴 Chowdhury in his latest statement said, “I can’t even think of insulting the President. It was just a mistake. If the President felt bad, I will personally meet her and apologise.” He added, “They can hang me if they want. I am ready to get punished but why is she (Sonia Gandhi) being dragged in this?” Earlier, the Congress leader had remained defiant stating, “There is no question of apologising… the ruling party in a deliberate design is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
🔴 Sonia Gandhi asserted that Chowdhury had “already apologised” for the remark. She called an urgent meeting of senior party leaders in the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) office. Party leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were called, reported news agency ANI.
🔴 Following multiple adjournments throughout the day amid the outrage of ruling party MPs, the Lok Sabha was suspended till 4 pm and the Rajya Sabha till 3 pm.
🔴 Meanwhile, as Opposition members protested over a range of issues in the Upper House as soon as the session resumed after the first adjournment, three more Members of Parliament — Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sandeep Kumar Pathak and Sushil Kumar Gupta and Independent legislator Ajit Kumar Bhuyan — were suspended for the rest of week for “unruly behaviour”. This takes the total number of suspended MPs in Parliament to 27.
🔴 Several leaders have hit out at Chowdhury for his remarks. Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, “The entire country today is upset over Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s remark on the President.” BSP supremo Mayawati, meanwhile, tweeted, “…the objectionable remark made against her (President Murmu) by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, is very sad, shameful and highly condemnable.”
— with inputs from PTI
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