After the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded an apology from Sonia Gandhi for insulting President Droupadi Murmu by referring to her as 'rashtrapatni', Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi said, "Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has already apologised."
"He has already apologised," Sonia Gandhi responded to the media on party's Adhir Chowdhury's 'rashtrapatni' remark.
However, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said that he had used the term 'rashtrapatni' for President Murmu by mistake and that the ruling party was deliberately trying to make a 'mountain out of a molehill'.
"There is no question of apologising. I had mistakenly said 'rashtrapatni', now if you want to hang me for it, then you can...the ruling party, in a deliberate design, trying to make mountain out of a molehill," said Chowdhury on his remark.
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi called an urgent meeting of senior party leaders in the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) office.
Party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Chowdhury are also called.
Gandhi, along with Chowdhury and N K Suresh, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and requested him to give Chowdhury a chance to speak on the floor of the House about the allegations made against him over his statement.
Union Minister Smriti Irani slammed the Congress and demanded an apology for 'maliciously targeting' President Droupadi Murmu and said the country knows that the opposition party is 'anti-tribal, anti-Dalit and anti-women'.
"The Congress needs to apologise in Parliament and on the streets of India," Irani said.
In the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanded an apology from Gandhi.
