The photos that went viral from the ceremony that President Droupadi President Murmu presented the nation’s highest civilian honor to former deputy prime minister L K Advani, as the latter’s house on Sunday triggered a wave of criticism, alleging disrespect of President Murmu, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Photo shows that while President Murmu was standing, PM Modi and Advani remained seated, Particularly, the opposition is accusing this of as disrespecting the dignity of the presidential office. According to protocal, President stands first, while Prime Minister third place.
First the wave of criticisms started from the main opposition, the Congress party, which termed that Prime Minister Modi had committed “gravest disrespect” to President Droupadi Murmu by not standing up while she was presenting Bharat Ratna to BJP veteran L K Advani.
“The gravest disrespect to our Rashtrapati. The Prime Minister certainly should have been standing,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on social media platform X, sharing the pictures of President Murmu presenting Bharat Ratna to Advani at his residence.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also condemned the disrespectful treatment of President Murmu by PM Modi and alleged that the BJP has no faith in the Constitution. “Earlier also we have witnessed Droupadi Murmu walking behind PM Narendra Modi, they don’t believe in the Constitution and they only want to implement the agenda of RSS in the country,” he added..
Calling it casteist and gender discriminatory, DMK MP Kanimozhi slammed the incident. “Deeply dismayed by the blatant disrespect shown towards our @RashtrapatiBhvn. This image serves as a stark evidence of how caste and gender discrimination persist, even towards the constitutional head of our nation, under BJP rule,” she wrote on X.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and Trinamool Congress’ MP Jawhar Sircar also shared photographs of the incident on their X accounts, condemning it.
However, social media users and supporters of the BJP have refuted these claims, labelling the photographs as misleading and asserting that a specific protocol must be adhered to during the award ceremony.
According to them, the prime minister was only following the protocol of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Only the President, her security guards, and the award recipient are permitted to stand, while others are required to remain seated.
