Both Houses of Parliament Adjourned Amidst Ruckus Over “Insult” to President Droupadi Murmu
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 28: Both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned on Thursday amidst tumultuous scenes after members continued to shout slogans and protest inside Parliament with Sonia Gandhi – Smriti Irani showdown over Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhury calling Droupadi Murmu “Rashtrapatni” repeatedly taking an ugly turn leading to the heckling of the Congress leader by a number of BJP members.
Three more MPs — AAP’s Sushil Kumar Gupta and Sanjeev Kumar Pathak, and independent Ajit Kumar Bhuyan — were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for carrying placards in the House. The three MPs were protesting against and demanding a discussion on the Gujarat hooch tragedy. With this the total number of members suspended in the upper house went up to 23 while four Congress MPs in the Lok Sabha have also been suspended.
The proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha remained stalled even on the ninth day of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament amid continued protests from the Congress-led Opposition over inflation, GST hike. The Opposition members also demanded that the suspension of 20 MPs be also revoked.
But the Thursday’s session began with the BJP members standing up in protest as soon as the Houses assembled with the ruling party members slamming the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for allegedly insulting President Droupadi Murmu by calling her “Rashtrapatni.” The issue soon turned into a conflict between the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the union minister Smriti Irani with other BJP members joining in shouting slogans against Gandhi.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it was “a deliberate, sexist insult” against the President who comes from a tribal background, and demanded an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Ms. Sitharaman said it was a “common understanding that Rashtrapati is a gender agnostic word, representing the leader of the nation.”
The issue continued to drag on even after Choudhury repeatedly apologised for, what he claimed, his “slip of tongue” and agreed to call on Murmu to personally express his regrets for the mistake. The BJP members, particularly Ms Irani held Sonia Gandhi responsible for Choudhury’s comments and kept on demanding a public apology from her.
Ms Irani launched a scathing attack on Sonia Gandhi, demanding an apology from her. “Sonia Gandhi sanctioned the humiliation of a woman at the highest constitutional office in the country,” she said. An irate Ms Irani also called Mrs Gandhi “anti-Adivasi, anti-Dalit, and anti-woman”.
Another protest led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has just recovered from Covid, saw her standing with fellow MPs with placards on the Parliament premises protesting the remark. Inside the lower house, Ms Sitharaman called it a “deliberate sexist abuse” and demanded that the Congress President apologise on behalf of the party.
“I demand an apology from the President of Congress party who herself is a woman has allowed her leader to speak like that. Sonia Gandhi should come before the nation and apologise for insulting the President,” the finance minister said in the Lok Sabha.
Adhir Ranjan Choudhury swiftly clarified saying it was a mere slip of the tongue and the BJP was “making a mountain out of a molehill.” He accused the BJP of distracting from crucial discussions on price rise, GST, the Agnipath scheme, unemployment, and other issues. Stressing there’s no chance of an apology to the BJP, he said he would personally meet Ms Murmu and apologise to the President “a hundred times” if she says she was hurt by his remark. He ascribed his “slip of the tongue” to the language barrier, claiming he is a Bengali and not proficient in Hindi as it’s not his mother tongue.
“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 protesting at Vijay Chowk, reporters asked us where we wanted to go. I told them I want to visit the President’s house. Just once, 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,” Mr Choudhury said in a video statement posted on his Twitter account.
“Sonia Gandhi, apologise,” Smriti Irani had said in the house, with members of the ruling BJP holding up placards. “Sonia Gandhi, you sanctioned the humiliation of Droupadi Murmu. Sonia ji sanctioned humiliation of a woman in the highest constitutional post,” the Union Minister said.
After the house was adjourned following the ruckus created by the BJP members over the issue, Sonia Gandhi was about to leave when she decided to speak to BJP member of the speaker’s panel Rama Devi. Two Congress MPs were with her. Sonia Gandhi also pointed out that the issue should had been closed since Chowdhury has already apologised and reportedly told Rama Devi “Adhir Ranjan has already apologised. What is my fault?” Sources say Smriti Irani interjected and said, “Madam, may I help you? I took your name.” To which, Sonia Gandhi retorted: “Don’t talk to me.”
But that further enraged her and she told Gandhi ‘, “How dare you. This is not your party office.” Ms Irani also alleged that the Congress has been targeting Ms Murmu “maliciously” ever since the BJP-led NDA named her its presidential candidate, and said she was called a “puppet” and a “symbol of evil” by its leaders. “The Congressman knew that to address the President of India in this way not only demeans her constitutional post but also the rich tribal legacy that she represents,” Smriti Irani said.
A Congress leader said Sonia Gandhi was “having a polite conversation” with Rama Devi when Smriti Irani came at her with pointed fingers. The leader claimed Ms Irani said: “How dare you, don’t behave like this, this is not your party office…” According to the Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi told Ms Irani twice: “I am not speaking to you.” The Congress president was “heckled”, and the situation became volatile, said the leader.
Trinamool Congress MPs Mahua Moitra and Aparupa Poddar and NCP’s Supriya Sule were seen drawing Sonia Gandhi away from the shouting BJP members. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi later stepped in to defuse the situation.
Sonia Gandhi reportedly said later that she was only trying to speak to Rama Devi as she knew her. “I am not afraid. I know Rama Devi so I went to tell her Adhir has apologised and why are you attacking me?” Mahua Moitra called it an orchestrated attack on Sonia Gandhi.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her retelling of the incident, slammed Sonia Gandhi: “Some of our Lok Sabha MPs felt threatened when Sonia Gandhi came up to our senior leader Rama Devi to find out what was happening during which, one of our members approached there and she (Sonia Gandhi) said – You don’t talk to me – putting our MP down in the house. So instead of remorse from the highest leader of the Congress party, we find greater aggression.”
Union Minister Smriti Irani behaved indecently and abusively in Lok Sabha today! But will the speaker condemn it? Are rules only for the opposition,” tweeted Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
Supriya Sule, one of the MPs who led away Congress’s Sonia Gandhi, however, said she had arrived at the scene late and was not aware what exactly transpired between Gandhi and Irani. “Smriti Irani said Sonia Gandhi threatened her? To be honest, I went much later, I was not there when this whole thing happened,” Ms Sule told reporters. “When I went Sonia-ji was not talking to anyone. A lot of MPs were there. Lot of commotion. Emotions were running high,” she said.
“Sonia-ji mentioned to me that she went to speak to Rama Devi and she had a chat and then there was too much commotion. So nobody really knows what happened,” she added.
Supriya Sule said she had walked up to Sonia Gandhi and “requested her this exchange is not going anywhere. She was very gracious. Sonia-ji and I left and I went and dropped her to her car.” “Parliament is sacrosanct and I think none of us should mislead anybody. All of us come here to work. Each one of us who is a member, is responsible for keeping the dignity of this temple of democracy,” she added.
Mahua Moitra was among the opposition MPs who witnessed the heated confrontation. She hit out at the BJP in her tweets. “Was in Lok Sabha when 75-year-old lady senior leader encircled and heckled pack-wolf style when all she did was walk over and speak (masked) to another senior lady panel chairperson. “Disgusted to read BJP lies and false version in press,” Ms Moitra posted.
