Yamuna, Sonia's 'poor lady', Shah's Ambedkar remarks in RS debate

The debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address on Monday saw BJP raising objections to the "poor lady" remarks of Sonia Gandhi against President Droupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, while Congress countered it by raking up the controversy over Home Minister Amit Shah in the winter session on Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.

The debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address on Monday was used as a forum for raising the Delhi Assembly issues by the BJP while Congress raked up Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks on BR Ambedkar in the winter session to allege the ruling dispensation is anti-Dalit.



BJP member Kiran Choudhry moved the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address on January 31. In her speech, Choudhry slammed the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi for failing repeatedly to keep its promise of cleaning the highly polluted Yamuna.

Seconding the motion, Neeraj Shekhar (BJP) said he is pained by the remarks of a leader who said described the President as "poor lady" and another leader (Rahul Gandhi) who had termed President's speech as "boring".

"I would request Mallikarjun Kharge to tell his party leader that the President's Address is not for entertainment," Shekhar said.


Leading the Opposition charge, Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi has failed to keep his word made during successive elections and the Centre is anti-farmer.

He charged that the economy has been kept on a ventilator and while the BJP had criticised Manmohan Singh during his prime ministership and called him "mauni baba" but the economy was in a better shape under him than it is today.

Prasad Recounts Past Clashes

The BJP on Monday used the Lok Sabha discussion on the motion of thanks to the President's address to target Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over her reference to President Droupadi Murmu as "poor lady... poor thing". Senior BJP member Ravi Shankar Prasad condemned Gandhi's remarks and alleged that the "big family of the main opposition party" had a long tradition of "insulting the Presidents of India".

Prasad spoke about the reported differences between first PM Jawaharlal and first President Rajendra Prasad, as well as how PM Indira Gandhi made President Fakruddin Ahmed sign the Emergency decree without the cabinet. He also said how PM Rajiv Gandhi treated then President Zail Singh was a matter of record. He also claimed that "if they could", Pranab Mukherjee would not have become the President.