West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted there was no breach of protocol at President Draupadi Murmu’s programme in Siliguri and said that the responsibility of mismanagement at the function, if any, lay with its private organisers and the Airports Authority of India who provided the venue of the event.
Taking the unprecedented verbal battle between Banerjee and President Murmu and its subsequent political and administrative dust-up a notch higher, the West Bengal Chief Minister on Sunday accused PM Narendra Modi of “insulting” the country’s highest Constitutional chair, rebutting his attack against the TMC government on the same grounds.
To support her claim, Banerjee held up an enlarged photograph of the PM remaining seated at an event with veteran BJP leader LK Advani, with the President standing next to them.
The photograph was purportedly of the March 2024 event of President Murmu awarding Advani at his New Delhi residence with the nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.