Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Bengal government of boycotting President Droupadi Murmu during her visit on Saturday, and said the state’s people would not forgive the “grave insult” to a woman.
“Today, the country is celebrating International Women’s Day, and yesterday the TMC government in West Bengal committed a grave insult to the country’s President, honourable Droupadi Murmuji,” Modi said in what sounded like an election speech delivered at a Women’s Day event in New Delhi.
Urging the people of Bengal to respond, Modi said the “enlightened citizens” of the state would not forgive the Trinamool Congress for insulting a woman, a tribal and the President of the country.
Modi had on Saturday described as “shameful and unprecedented” the alleged protocol breach during Murmu’s Bengal trip, and said the state government had “crossed all limits”.
Murmu had, while addressing an International Santhal Conference in Siliguri sub-division on Saturday, underlined that neither chief minister Mamata Banerjee nor any other Bengal minister had received her on arrival. She suggested a protocol violation and an attempt to keep the attendance low.
Mamata hit back by saying the agreed protocol for Murmu’s visit did not demand her presence, or that of any minister, and advised the President to “not do politics ahead of elections at the BJP’s behest”.
Modi, whose “Didi, O Didi” taunt during the 2021 Assembly poll campaign is believed to have alienated large segments of Bengal’s voters, especially women, avoided any direct reference to Mamata on Sunday.
Speaking after inaugurating several development projects, he accused the Trinamool government of allowing “chaos and disorder” around Murmu’s visit.
“This is not only an insult to the President but also to the country’s Constitution and the great traditions of our democracy,” the Prime Minister said.
Not just the people of Bengal but “the country will not forgive it, either; the tribal community will not forgive it, and the women of the country will not forgive it”.
Modi said Trinamool’s “arrogance of power” would soon be “shattered”, alluding to the coming Assembly polls.
“However powerful a person — an arrogant person — may appear, it ultimately comes to an end,” he said, quoting a couplet in Sanskrit.
Modi said: “From the country’s capital, I want to say that the TMC’s dirty politics of insulting a tribal President, and this arrogance of power, will soon be shattered.”
Former Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had no qualms about naming Mamata Banerjee when he briefed the media at the BJP headquarters.
“Kya hai Mamataji? Rashtrapatiji ka kare apman aur ghuspetiya ka kare samman (What’s this, Mamataji? Insult the President and respect infiltrators)?” Prasad said.
He alleged the Bengal government was encouraging illegal immigration.
“Only one kind of person is welcome in Mamata’s Bengal — infiltrators. Bengal’s doors are open to welcome infiltrators,” he said.
Prasad alleged that Mamata’s invocation of constitutional principles tended to
be selective.
“I would request Mamataji to stop creating the façade that the Constitution is in danger,” he said.
“If you cannot give respect to the President of India — who is the constitutional head of the country and the supreme commander of the armed forces — you have no right to talk about the Constitution.”
