Kolkata, March 8 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted that there was no breach of protocol at President Draupadi Murmu's programme in Siliguri, and said that the responsibility for any mismanagement at the event lay with its private organizers and the Airports Authority of India, who provided the venue.
Speaking from a central Kolkata platform on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized the TMC government for "insulting" a tribal leader and the President of the country, Banerjee displayed a large photograph of Prime Minister Modi seated next to veteran BJP leader LK Advani, with the President standing beside them.
"The picture shows that the Prime Minister is seated while the President is standing. We never do this. It is the BJP that has the culture of disrespecting the President, not us," she claimed, while presenting the photograph as "evidence."
"We have full respect for the President's office and the Constitution of India, which we consider our mother; do not blame us," Banerjee said.
Maintaining that the state government was not even aware of the details of the President's program and that the private organizers had not informed them, Banerjee said that the responsibility for the alleged garbage, malfunctioning green room, and lack of women's toilets should be borne by the event organizers and the AAI, whose plot the event was held on.
"You chose the venue, we did not," she said.
