New Delhi: The Rashtrapati Bhavan Friday took a veiled dig at Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin, saying her comment—“poor lady was getting very tired”—over President Droupadi Murmu’s Parliament address, could stem from her possible unfamiliarity “with the idiom and discourse in Indian languages such as Hindi”.
Shortly after BJP senior leaders took on Sonia, Rashtrapati Bhavan said the observations made by “some prominent leaders of the Congress party” have “clearly hurt the dignity of the high office, and therefore are unacceptable”.
“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 said.
It added “nothing could be farther from the truth” that the President was tired at the end of the speech. “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,” it said.
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Sonia made the comment outside Parliament—turning to her son and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi—when the media held up their mics to get a response to President Murmu’s opening remarks on the Budget Session.
She was heard saying, “Poor lady… The President was getting very tired by the end… She could hardly speak, poor thing.” On what he thought of the address, Rahul first reacted with a “Boring”, and then said, “No, comments”. He then told his mother: “Repeating the same thing again and again.”
Also Read: Modi & BJP top guns slam Sonia for ‘poor lady’ remark on President Murmu. Insulting tribals, says PM
‘Twisting words,’ slams Congress
As top guns of the BJP targeted Sonia over the remarks, the Congress rushed to her defence. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP and a “section of media” of “twisting the phrase” to deflect attention from the state of the economy as revealed in the Economic Survey, which was also published Friday.
“Her Excellency, the President was insulted by the Modi government on the very day when she was not invited to the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament. The Indian National Congress and our leaders can never insult the President or any citizen. This is not our culture.
“BJP had deliberately kept the current and previous Presidents away from both the temple of Democracy and Ram Temple,” he said.
Reacting to the BJP’s demand for an apology from Sonia, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was standing next to her mother when she made the remarks, said the BJP should first say sorry first for “landing the country in a ditch”.
She defended her mother saying, “My mother is a 78-year-old lady. She simply said the President must have been tired reading out such a long speech, poor thing. I think she has utmost respect for her.”
The Wayanad MP also said it was unfortunate that her words were being twisted by the media. “They are both respected people. They are older than us. It’s pretty clear she meant no disrespect,” Vadra told reporters while going to attend the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on “One Nation One Election”.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also Read: Amid Parliament logjam over Adani row, BJP steps up attack on Sonia for ‘links to body funded by Soros’
