Cong leaders' remarks on Prez Murmu unfortunate: Rashtrapati Bhavan

Congress leaders' comments on President Droupadi Murmu's address to the Parliament are in poor taste, unfortunate and entirely avoidable, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said on Friday.

IMAGE: President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla stand up for the National Anthem before addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament on the first day of the Budget Session, in New Delhi, January 31, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

In a statement, the President's office said such comments hurt the dignity of the high office and therefore are "unacceptable".

Soon after the President concluded her address to the joint sitting of both the Houses on Friday, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were seen discussing the speech.

"The poor lady, the President, was getting very tired by the end...she could hardly speak poor thing," Sonia Gandhi was heard saying in a video doing the rounds on social media.

The President's office said it believes that "it might be the case that these leaders were not acquainted 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, the statement said.

While reacting to the media on the 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, it said.

"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 marginalised communities, for women and farmers, as she was doing during the course of her address, can never be tiring," the statement said.

In her address, Murmu said the government has worked with strong determination to lift the economy out of the state of "policy paralysis" despite global concerns such as aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic and war-related uncertainties.

She also said the government's third term is seeing work being done at thrice the speed of previous administrations, citing decisions on issues such as Waqf boards and One Nation, One Election among others.