Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma raised objections on President’s Ram Nath Kovind‘s maiden speech on Tuesday after he swore in as the 14th President of India.

Just as the Rajya Sabha began its session on Wednesday, Sharma accused President Kovind of disrespecting the freedom fighters and told that he is now the President of India, so should rise above party politics. To support his allegations Sharma said that during the speech Kovind gave, he compared Mahatma Gandhi to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. He added that Upadhyaya was not a freedom fighter nor had any role in the nation building and comparing Gandhi to him was incorrect. He also alleged that Kovind had deliberately skipped mentioning the name of Nehru in his speech as he was a Congress leader.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also supporting Sharma said that Kovind mentioned two of the then ministers (Patel and Ambedkar) in his speech, but failed to mention the name of Nehru. He is not the President of BJP, but now the President of the country and he should rise above party politics, he added.

Responding to the allegations of Congress leaders, BJP immediately accused the Congress of insulting the President. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley demanded that the comments of the Congress leaders should be expunged. He further added that “The Chair must be guided by a principle that you can’t have a zero Hour run only for the benefit of TV Cameras… that is something that is happening here. Anand Sharma’s whole speech has to be expunged. Reference to a high constitutional authority is not allowed in the house”.

Following the commotion created by both the parties, the House was adjourned for half an hour.