'Sexist insult': Sitharaman slams Adhir Chowdhury for calling Murmu 'rashtrapatni', seeks apology from Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (July 28, 2022) slammed Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for calling Droupadi Murmu "rashtrapatni" and said that it was a "deliberate sexist insult" against the President. She also demanded an apology from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for Chowdhury's remark.

While making a brief statement in Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said, "Chowdhury's comments were not a slip of tongue. It was a deliberate sexist insult against the President."

She added that at a time the entire country is rejoicing at the selection of a self-made woman from a tribal background as the President, "for the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha to call her 'rashtrapatni' in a 'pati-patni' (husband-wife) kind of a level, has insulted the President of India."

"I demand an apology from the president of the Congress party who herself is a woman," she said.

Gandhi appointed Chowdhury as the leader in Lok Sabha to speak and he has insulted the President, she said.

"It was not a slip of tongue. It was a deliberate, sexist insult against the President...We demand an apology from the president of the @INCIndia."

- Smt @nsitharaman while speaking in Rajya Sabha on Congress MP @adhirrcinc's objectionable remarks. pic.twitter.com/CQrgAPy9uM — NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) July 28, 2022

"Smt Sonia Gandhi should come before the nation and apologise to the Rashtrapati and also to the entire country for the insult by her own leader in Lok Sabha."

Chouwdhry's comments were not a "slip of the tongue but a deliberate ploy to insult" the President and it is unacceptable, she said.

Slip of tongue: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on calling Droupadi Murmu 'rashtrapatni'

Meanwhile, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said that calling President Droupadi Murmu a 'rashtrapatni' was a "slip of the tongue".    

"I inadvertently used the word 'rashtrapatni' just once and it was a slip of the tongue. I never meant any disrespect to the president," he told reporters outside Parliament.

"What should I do? I said it and realised I uttered the wrong word. I even looked for media persons to who I had said this to. To request them to not focus on it. However, I couldn't find them," he added, a day after the remark.

Some ruling party members, the Congress leader added, are "deliberately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill".

There is no question of an apology, he stated.

In a video message later, he said India's president, be it Brahmin or tribal, is respected by all.

"Yesterday, when we were holding a protest at Vijay Chowk, journalists asked where we wanted to go. I said 'rashtrapatni' only once by mistake. I urged the journalists not to show my video where I committed a mistake. The BJP is creating a row over it now," he said.

pic.twitter.com/fvBNLmI7ah

— Adhir Chowdhury (@adhirrcinc) July 28, 2022

"The issue is being blown out of proportion... I do not have the remotest intention of humiliating the highest chair of our country," Chowdhury said.

Making such comments is bad: Venkaiah Naidu on Adhir Chowdhury calling Murmu 'rashtrapatni'

Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said nobody is supposed to make any derogatory comments against the President of India.

"Making such comments is bad," he said.

"I don't know why it has happened and it is wrong," Naidu added.

He said President was discussed even in the Constituent Assembly and Rashtrapati was a settled title to be used.

(With agency inputs)