Kolkata: President Droupadi Murmu is known to be extremely calm and composed under all circumstances. However, even she could not remain silent at the major protocol breach and administrative lapse that took place in West Bengal during her visit for the 9th International Santhal Conference on Saturday.
Noting that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee may be angry with her, President Murmu expressed her disappointment after the former or none of her ministers turned up to give her a formal welcome, as reported by The Indian Express.
The venue of the programme was also shifted by the administration, and many Santhals were allegedly stopped from attending. The programme was initially supposed to be held in a field in Bidhannagar but the administration shifted the venue to Gosainpur in Siliguri.
“I can see from here, many Santhals are moving away. I think someone is stopping them… People don’t want Santhals to be united, Santhals to be educated, Santhals to be strengthened,” President Murmu said during her address.
She visited the Bidhannagar field after the programme and planted a tree. She later spoke to the people present there and said: “The programme was scheduled to be held here. This is a big field where 5 lakh people could have been accommodated. But the administration shifted the venue… They said this venue was congested. There are many intelligent people here (in the administration). But I don’t know why this happened.”
“That venue [Gosainpur] is far away. Maybe they thought that the President would come and leave as there would be no one. I am really sad. Generally, when the President visits somewhere, the Chief Minister comes, ministers come. The Chief Minister did not come. I understand that the Governor has been transferred and that is why he could not come. The date for the programme was fixed earlier… But no issue. I am also Bengal’s daughter. Mamata Banerjee is my sister… my younger sister… Maybe she is angry with me. But it’s okay, I wish her well,” President Murmu said.
During his speech at the conference, the main organiser, Naresh Murmu, expressed anger at the local administration and alleged: “Police changed the venue of this programme four times. They didn’t even build a separate washroom for the President. This is very unfortunate. Now, they are stopping our people from entering this venue, saying they don’t have a security pass but they did not even arrange any security passes.”
While the CM or the state government are yet to react to the President’s comments, the opposition BJP and Congress in the state hit out at the CM. On Saturday, the CM remained on a sit-in demonstration at Esplanade in central Kolkata against what she called “arbitrary deletions” in voter rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.
“An anti-India government is running in Bengal. It is an insult to the head of the country, the President, though I am sure this breach took place with full knowledge of the Chief Minister. Strict action should be taken against officials who are responsible for this situation today,” senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha told the newspaper.
Congress leader and former MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, while speaking to media persons, said: “The President is the head of the country. She holds the top post. What happened is unbecoming to the post…”
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty, however, said: “The whole situation was created because of the Election Commission of India. Our Chief Minister is now fighting for the people’s rights. We know our President is a very good human and she would understand the compulsion of Mamata Banerjee.”
