Congress’ Pramod Tiwari comes to Kharge’s defence on “mataji” jibe at FM Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi [India], July 25 (ANI): Congress leader Pramod Tiwari defended party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on his “mataji” jibe at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the discussion on the Union Budget in Rajya Sabha.

Tiwari said that “mataji” is just a translation of “amma,” and Nirmala Sitharaman should feel respected and added that the Congress party was voicing the whole country’s feelings on budget.

“Mallikarjun Kharge comes from Karnataka and ‘amma’ is used to address every woman. Mataji is just a translation of ‘amma’. Nirmala Sitharaman should feel respected.

The Congress leader further said that Kharge was voicing out the whole country’s feelings on the Union Budget.

“Kharge ji named all those states that got nothing in the budget,” he said.

Kharge, on Wednesday, said, “The budget that was presented yesterday, no state got anything…sakbi thali khali aur do thali mein pakora and jalebi (all plates empty and in two plates, there is pakora and jalebi). Meri toh apeksha aaise thi ki sabse jayada budget se hamai (Karnataka) ko milega (being the Finance Minister’s hometown). But we got nothing. All the INDI Alliance parties will protest. From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, we will protest.”

Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankar interrupted and said, “Let Union Finance Minister speak,” to which Kharge said, “Mataji bolne mai toh expert hai mujhe maloom hai (she is expert is speaking, I am aware of that).”

Dhankar further interrupted the two leaders and said, “Yeh mataji nahi yeh toh aapki beti ke barabar hai.”

In response to Kharge’s statement, Sitharaman said, “I am saying with responsibility that this is a ‘deliberate attempt’ of the opposition parties led by the Congress to give the people the wrong impression that their states were not allocated funds or schemes.”

“I would challenge the Congress party for all the budget speeches they have delivered. Have they named every state of the country in each of their budget speeches? This is an outrageous allegation,” she added.