New Delhi: Congress leader Udit Raj on Wednesday courted controversy after he accused President Droupadi Murmu of indulging in “chamchagiri” (sycophancy).
Taking to his official Twitter account, the Chairman of the Unorganized Workers & Employees Congress also said that “no country should get a President like Droupadi Murmu”.
“No country should get a President like Droupadi Murmu ji. ‘Chamchagiri’ also has its limits. She says 70 per cent of the people eat Gujarat’s salt. She will get to know once she starts living by consuming salt only,” Udit Raj said in a tweet in Hindi.
Earlier this week, President Murmu had noted in a civic reception hosted by the Government of Gujarat in her honour that the state produces 76 per cent of the country’s salt and added on a lighter that “the salt produced in Gujarat is consumed by all Indians”.
After backlash over his tweet, Udit Raj said on Thursday that his statement on Droupadi Murmuji is his personal view and has nothing to do with Congress.
“My statement as regard to Droupadi Murmuji is mine & nothing to do with Congress. Her candidature & campaign were in the name adivasi, it doesn’t mean she is no longer adivasi. My heart cries that when SC/ST reach to higher position, they ditch their communities & become mum,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed Udit Raj for his remarks on President Murmu and said that it showed the Congress party’s “anti-tribal mindset”. BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the kind of words Udit Raj has used for the President are “indecent, sad, and worrying”.
“It is surprising and saddening how Congress is regularly using disrespectful words for 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 sought an apology from the party as to why they have “such psychology” for the country’s first tribal president.