From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Opposition was on Thursday shocked to see the Government hijacking their daily show of pandemonium forcing adjournment of Parliament as its ministers Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha and Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha led the BJP attack on Lok Sabha Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for his remarks on President Droupadi Murmu.
There was a chorus from the BJP benches in both the Houses seeking apology from Congress President Sonia Gandhi with slogans of “Maafi Mango” and counter protests from the Congress side, forcing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn the two House till 12 noon and then till 4 PM.
Adhir clarified that it was a slip of tongue to describe the President as “Rashtrapatni” and offered to apologise to Murmu for his controversial remark if she felt bad on his controversial “Rashtrapatni” comment, claiming it was a “slip of tongue” and no question of insulting her.
In the Lok Sabha, Minister Smriti Irani went to the strength of targeting Sonia Gandhi for sanctioning the humiliation of “a woman in the highest constitutional post.” The BJP leaders claimed this was also an insult of the tribals as the Congress never promoted any tribal leader to be the President of India.
Sitharaman insisted in the Rajya Sabha that Chowdhury should be censured for a “deliberate sexist remark. She and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who is also the leader of House in the Rajya Sabha, insisted that Chowdhury has displayed the anti-tribal attitude of the Congress. Chowdhury, however, hit back that the government and the BJP is making “mountain of the mole hill.”
Congress chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh chipped in on Twitter describing Smriti Irani’s show in the Lok Sabha as “atrocious and outrageous behavior” and asked: Will se be pulled up by the Speaker or rules only meant for the Opposition?”
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