Hours after Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said President Droupadi Murmu was ‘getting tired by the end’ of her speech in Parliament on the first day of the Budget Session 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned the derogatory remarks against the President.
Besides, Sonia Gandhi, Independent MP and Congress supporter Pappu Yadav also criticized President Murmu over her Budget speech.
Addressing a political rally in Delhi, PM Modi said, “Droupadi Murmu ji has come here from a tribal family. Her mother tongue is not Hindi, it is Odia. She wonderfully inspired the Parliament today and gave a speech. But the royal family of Congress has started insulting her. A member of the royal family said that the tribal daughter gave a boring speech. Another member went one step further and called the President a poor thing. They find the speech of a tribal daughter boring.”
Earlier, addressing the media outside the parliament, Sonia Gandhi said, as quoted by ANI, “..The President was getting very tired by the end…She could hardly speak, poor thing…”
Independent MP and Congress supporter Pappu Yadav also criticized Murmu. “The President is like a stamp. She just has to read a love letter…” Pappu Yadav was quoted by news agency ANI as saying. He further attacked the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and accused it of lying to the people who had voted for them.
“Let’s start with the economy, demonetisation, black money, ₹15 lakh, 2 crore jobs, Ayushmann, Jan Dhan Yojana, MSPs, Manipur, Agniveer, reservation, caste census… They [BJP] always lie and try to divert people. Mahakumbh is happening in 12 years but they said it is happening after 144 years. they don’t talk about common men, economy…” he told ANI.
Rashtrapati Bhavan counters Sonia Gandhi:
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has condemned Sonia Gandhi’s remarks and deemed it ‘unacceptable’ and ‘entirely avoidable’.
“These leaders have said that the President was getting very tired by the end and she could hardly speak. Rashtrapati Bhavan would like to clarify that nothing could be farther from the truth. 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,” read an official statement.
“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,” the Rashtrapati Bhavan statement added.
