Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood with other MPs with placards in their hands to protest Adhir Chowdhury’s remarks.
New Delhi: Slamming the Congress for senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s “Rashtrapatni” comment on President Droupadi Murmu, the BJP on Thursday demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
In a scathing attack against Gandhi and her party, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani said, “Sonia Gandhi sanctioned the humiliation of a woman at the highest constitutional office in the country.” Irani also called Gandhi “anti-Adivasi, anti-Dalit, and anti-woman”.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stood with other MPs with placards in their hands to protest Chowdhury’s remarks. Inside Lok Sabha, Sitharaman called it a “deliberate sexist abuse” and demanded Sonia Gandhi’s apology on behalf of the party.
Chowdhury apologised saying it was a slip of the tongue and that the BJP is “making a mountain out of a molehill”. He also accused the BJP of distracting from crucial discussions on price rise, GST, the Agnipath scheme, unemployment and other issues.
In a statement posted on his Twitter account, Chowdhury said, “Whoever is the President of India, be it Brahmin, or Adivasi, the President is the President for us. Our respect is for the post. Yesterday when we were at protesting at Vijay Chowk, reporters asked us where we wanted to go. I told them I want to visit the President’s house. Just one, I said “Rashtrapatni”…The reporter repeated it to me and I said I might have said that by mistake and it would be better if they didn’t broadcast it. They (BJP) are creating a furore because of this. I made a mistake, just once and in one word.”
