‘Hurt dignity': Rashtrapati Bhavan slams Sonia Gandhi's remark on President Murmu
Sonia Gandhi stoked a political row over her “poor thing” remark on President Droupadi Murmu
The Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday slammed Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi's ‘poor thing’ remark on President Droupadi Murmu, calling it “in poor taste”.
In a statement, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said,"While reacting to the media on the Hon’ble President’s Address to the Parliament, some prominent leaders of the Congress party have made comments that clearly hurt the dignity of the high office, and therefore are unacceptable. These leaders have said that the President was getting very tired by the end and she could hardly speak."
The President's House called the remark “farther from truth”, adding,"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."
“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,” the statement read.
Political storm over Sonia Gandhi's remark
While reacting to President Droupadi Murmu's joint address to Parliament, Sonia Gandhi said,"The President was getting very tired by the end...She could hardly speak, poor thing."
Union minister and BJP chief JP Nadda said,"I and every BJP Karyakarta strongly condemns the usage of the phrase "poor thing" by Smt. Sonia Gandhi for Honourable President of India, Droupadi Murmu Ji. The deliberate usage of such words shows the elitist, anti-poor and anti-tribal nature of the Congress Party."
“Sonia Gandhi's comments were totally inappropriate. She said that during her speech the president was very tired. She called her a poor thing. We want to tell it clearly that the honourable President is not a poor thing. India is a republic and the world's largest Democracy,” BJP MP Sambit Patra said.
