“Poor Thing”: Sonia Gandhi’s Remark on President Sparks Political Firestorm

The Budget Session of Parliament began with a fresh controversy as Sonia Gandhi’s casual remark about President Droupadi Murmu set off a political storm. While expressing concern over the President’s exhaustion after her lengthy address, Gandhi’s words—“poor thing”—were swiftly seized upon by the BJP as an insult to the highest constitutional office, triggering demands for an apology.

The BJP accused the Congress of harboring an elitist, feudal mindset, unable to digest the rise of a tribal woman to the nation’s top position. Party chief JP Nadda called the comment “deeply disrespectful,” while ministers like Kiren Rijiju and Dharmendra Pradhan condemned it as an unprecedented insult. Congress, meanwhile, dismissed the outrage as manufactured, with Rahul Gandhi’s voice in the background even adding a touch of humor to the moment.

As the war of words escalated, the larger narrative of class and privilege versus empowerment and representation played out once again in the political theater. Amid all this, President Murmu’s speech itself—a broad endorsement of the Modi government’s achievements—was overshadowed, proving yet again that in Indian politics, sometimes a single phrase can dominate headlines more than an entire policy agenda.

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