Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday condemned her cabinet colleague Akhil Giri's derogatory remarks on President Draupadi Murmu's looks and tendered a public apology over his act on behalf of her party.
Breaking her silence under an intense pressure from the BJP and tribal communities three days after the incident, Ms Banerjee said, "We respect and honour the President. She is a highly respected lady. It was not correct for Akhil to make those comments about her. We have condemned this. Our party has cautioned Akhil also. We do not support his opinion."
She added, "He has been warned against commenting further. If anything happens in future the party will take action in its own course. I personally respect the President very much. I feel beauty can not be judged by complexion and outlook only. Beauty what lies inside. She is a very nice and sweet lady. I like her very much."
The CM underlined, "What Akhil did was injustice. I condemn the utterances of my MLA. I am really sorry for that. I apologize on behalf of the party. My party has also apologized on this particular issue because I have greats for the President, the Prime Minister and others. We do not make any personal comments. This is not our party culture."
The TMC supremo then trained her guns on leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari who is seen in a footage making distasteful comments on her cabinet colleague, Birbaha Hansda, also from the tribal community. In the eleven-second video clip tweeted by the TMC, Mr Adhikari is heard saying, "These people, Debnath Hansda, Birbaha Hansda, who are sitting here, are kids! They will be under my shoes."
Ms Banerjee claimed, "Birbaha is from a tribal family in Jhargram with a cultural background. If someone calls her worthy of keeping under shoes, is it a tasteful comment? Or is it a tasteful comment to mock someone as a jungle crow? The way BJP is defaming everyone and our state, it would lose tongue soon."
