New Delhi: A group of women academicians and former officers Monday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding action against Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for his controversial ‘rashtrapatni’ reference to President Droupadi Murmu so that such “sexist and outrageous” behaviour is not repeated.
Sensibilities of every single parliamentarian were outraged by Chowdhury’s comment and every patriotic Indian felt “anguished and furious over this kind of insult shown to a female head of the entire Indian nation,” they said in an open letter to the minister.
The 51 signatories to the letter include former IAS officers Gauri Kumar and K Ratnaprabha, former Jharkhand DGP Nirmal Kaur, former Central Board of Direct Taxes chairperson Sudha Sharma, former CBDT member Saroj Bala and Chaudhary Charan Singh University Vice Chancellor Sangeeta Shukla.
As his remark made last week triggered a political storm with the BJP raising the issue in Parliament and attacking the Congress leadership, Chowdhury Friday tendered a written apology to Murmu.
He said he mistakenly used the incorrect word for the President and that it was a slip of tongue.
In their letter, the signatories, which also included veterans and former ambassadors, noted that MPs belonging to different political parties have demanded an unconditional apology from him for demeaning the President who is the first tribal to hold the office and also hails from a poor family.
“It is our appeal to the Home Minister to initiate appropriate action against him as per law. This would ensure that such sexist and outrageous behaviour is never repeated,” they said.
Expressions like “rashtrapati”, “senapati” and ‘sabhapati’ are normally used and it would be totally unacceptable to use terms like “rashtrapatni”, “senapatni” and “sabhapatni” if women hold such positions, they said.
“From calling Mrs Murmu a ‘puppet’ and a ‘symbol of evil’ the Congress has been maliciously attacking the President ever since she was fielded as an NDA nominee for the presidential election,” they alleged.
Noting that the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was enacted to prevent atrocities against the two deprived communities, they said one offence under this includes deliberately insulting and humiliating in public view a citizen of India from these social groups.
“Clearly, Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has insulted and humiliated Mrs Droupadi Murmu, India’s first President from Tribal Community, in full public view,” they said.
His “offence” is punishable under Sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well, they added.
In fact, the offence becomes graver because “it is against our head of the state”, they said.
While Chowdhury deserves to be punished by courts for this “deliberate sexist insult” to the respected female President, he should also be made to publicly apologise to all Indian women, they said.
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