NCW summons Congress's AR Chowdhury for 'rashtrapatni' remark; asks Sonia Gandhi to intervene

The National Commission for Women summoned Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to appear before it in person and provide a written explanation for referring to President Droupadi Murmu as 'rashtrapatni' on Thursday.

The Commission, which has scheduled Chowdhury's hearing for next Wednesday at 11.30 am, has also written to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, requesting that she intervene and take appropriate action against Chowdhury for his derogatory remark.

The use of the term 'rashtrapatni' to refer to India's first tribal president has created a new battleline between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress. The BJP has demanded that Congress President Sonia Gandhi apologise.

The National Commission for Women and 13 state commissions for women issued a joint statement, calling Chowdhury's remark 'deeply insulting, sexist, and an attempt to humiliate the Hon'ble President.'

'We call on all right-thinking people to condemn his words in the strongest possible terms,' said NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma, who was joined at the quarterly meeting in Visakhapatnam by representatives from 13 state commissions, including those from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

After facing criticism, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who had previously referred to President Droupadi Murmu in a video clip as 'rashtrapatni,' said, "I only said it once. It was just a slip of the tongue. The BJP is blowing the whole thing out of proportion, creating an unnecessary controversy."

The Congress MP has stated that he will apologise to President Droupadi Murmu but will not apologise to the 'pakhandi' (fraud) BJP MPs who protested against Chowdhury's apparent 'slip of the tongue.'

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• Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
• BJP
• Bharatiya Janata Party
• Congress
• Droupadi Murmu
• National Commission for Women
• Rama Devi
• Rashtrapatni remark
• Rashtrapatni remark row
• Rashtrapatni row
• Rekha Sharma
• Sonia Gandhi