New Delhi: The Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday asserted that President Droupadi Murmu was not tired at any point while addressing the Parliament and the comments made by leaders of the Congress are in poor taste, unfortunate and entirely avoidable.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a clarification after senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi said that the President was tired.
In a media statement, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said, "While reacting to the media on the Hon’ble President’s Address to the Parliament, some prominent leaders of the Congress party have made comments that clearly hurt the dignity of the high office, and therefore are unacceptable. 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," it said.
"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," added the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
A huge row erupted after the comments made by Sonia Gandhi, wife of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The BJP on Friday latched on to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's reaction to President Droupadi Murmu's address to both Houses of Parliament, alleging the Congress leader referring to the President as a "poor thing" demeans the high office and reflects her feudal mindset.