Sambit Patra, the national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party, attacked Congress leader Udit Raj on Thursday for his comments against President Droupadi Murmu and claimed that they demonstrated the party’s “anti-tribal ideology.”
On Wednesday, Udit Raj accused President Murmu of engaging in “chamchagiri” with his divisive comments against her.
“No country should get a president like Droupadi Murmu Ji. Chamchagiri also has its limits. She says 70 percent of the people eat Gujarat’s salt. She will get to know once she starts living by consuming salt only,” Udit Raj said in his tweet in Hindi.
Sambit Patra of the BJP claimed that Udit Raj’s language toward the President was offensive, depressing, and unsettling.
He added that the Congress party had previously referred to the President in such a manner. When a tribal woman was elected president of the nation, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury used language about her that we have heard before.
“It is surprising and saddening how Congress is regularly using disrespectful words towards the President of India, who has struggled enough to reach the topmost position of the country and it shows their mentality,” Patra said, adding that it “exposes their anti-tribal mindset”.
He also demanded an apology from the party for their treatment of the nation’s first tribal leader.
Days before Udit Raj’s comments, President Murmu observed that 76% of the nation’s salt is produced in Gujarat, adding lightheartedly that “all Indians use the salt produced in Gujarat” at a civic banquet held in her honour by the Gujarati government on Monday in Gandhinagar (yah kaha jaa sakta hai ki sabhi deshwasi Gujarat kaa namak khate hain).
In the meantime, Shehzad Poonawalla of the BJP poked fun at the party in the meantime by questioning whether the Congress party supported such conduct.
Poonawalla launched a vicious attack, claiming that this was the genuine “Chaal Charitra Chehara” of the Congress, who had repeatedly insulted India’s first female Adivasi President.
Recounting how Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary referred to Murmu Ji as “Rashtrapatni” and Congress leader Ajoy Kumar described her as having an “evil attitude,” Poonawalla questioned whether Udit Raj would be fired if the Congress disagreed with this terminology. Would this statement be condemned by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi?
“it is unlikely that they would (condemn it) as such statements are applauded by the first family, which ensured the defeat of Babasaheb Ambedkar twice and ensured that Bhagwan Birsa Munda never got his due.”
He also accused Congress of having “deep-seated hatred for Adivasis and Dalits” and said, “Droupadi Murmu ji rose up through sheer hard work and commitment despite her challenging socio-economic circumstances and became a people’s President, but Congress cannot accept this.”