Prime Minister Narendra Modi levelled serious charges against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee saying that she showed disrespect towards President Droupadi Murmu, among others, by not remaining in attendance when she visited West Bengal for attending an ninth International Santali Conclave organised by a private entity. This is shameful and unprecedented. Everyone who believes in democracy and the empowerment of tribal communities is disheartened.The pain and anguish expressed by Rashtrapati Ji, who herself hails from a tribal community, has caused immense sadness in the minds of the people… https://t.co/XGzwMCMFrT— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 7, 2026Modi and Shah’s violations of protocolModi did so by forgetting that he himself had egregiously violated the dignity of the president’s office by invoking Murmu’s name during election campaigns for partisan purposes of winning election for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the context of his scathing accusations concerning Banerjee’s alleged humiliation to President Murmu, Modi went out of the way to flag the point that the Office of the President is above politics and its sanctity must always be respected. It is rather astonishing that Modi could forget that the Office of the President is above politics when he, while campaigning in Banswara in Rajasthan during 2024 general elections, appealed to people to reject Congress which could not field a tribal candidate for occupying the office of the president of India and vote for BJP which ensured that a tribal daughter assumed the highest office of the land. Modi repeated that wilful violation of embroiling President Murmu in party politics by invoking her name for seeking votes in several other election campaigns and Union home minister Amit Shah did the same when he, while campaigning for his party in elections in Gujarat in 2022, said that Congress exploited tribals and Modi gave first president from the tribal community.Murmu is at the centre stage of the BJP’s partisan political pursuits.Murmu’s silenceIt is rather shocking that President Murmu who slapped Banerjee with charges that neither she as chief minister nor any other Bengal minister had received her on arrival and suggested gross violation of protocol never held responsible Prime Minister Modi and Union home minister Shah for repeatedly using her office and her name in election campaigns for seeking votes for the BJP. Murmu as the president of India taking oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution cannot be seen to adopt differential standards – one standard to attack Banerjee and another standard wilfully ignoring Modi and Shah entangling her name and office for seeking electoral gains for the BJP. In doing so, she is diminishing the dignity of the Office of the President which her distinguished predecessors had upheld and set shining examples for their successors to follow. Ramnath Kovind’s exampleIt is in this context, one is constrained to cite an example of 2017 when BJP leaders of Karnataka humiliated former President Ramnath Kovind, who was elected to the highest office of our Republic, during Modi’s first tenure as the prime minister. Kovind while addressing the state Vidhana Soudha’s diamond jubilee in October 2017 had invoked Tipu Sultan and said, “Tipu Sultan died a heroic death fighting the British. He was also a pioneer in the development and use of Mysore rockets in warfare. This technology was later adopted by Europeans.” It is worth mentioning that the name of Tipu Sultan was used by Netaji Subhas Bose in his proclamation of the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India) which he established in 1943 in Singapore. Former President K.R. Narayanan also made an evocative reference to Tipu Sultan’s name in his address at the banquet hosted by Jacques Chirac, president of France on April 17, 2000. Disregarding such historical record of celebrating Tipu Sultan’s legacy, Karnataka BJP leader R. Ashoka blamed the ruling Congress government of the state for Kovind referencing Tipu Sultan in his address. “The state government,” he charged, “gave the speech to the president.” Then chief minister Siddaramaiah denied the allegation, maintaining that Kovind had spoken of his own accord. “Neither did we prepare the speech, nor did the president ask us for suggestions,” he stated.Was not Karnataka BJP leader insulting President Kovind for making an unacceptable charge that someone else drafted his speech. At that time Prime Minister Modi did not utter a word to chastise BJP leader Ashoka for disrespecting the president as he is now accusing Banerjee with regards to President Murmu.Mamata’s chargeAs President Murmu accused that the venue of Santhal conference in West Bengal was changed to keep attendance of participants low and someone was not interested to see Santhals come forward and get educated. Banerjee sharply appealed to Murmu, “Not do politics ahead of elections at the BJP’s behest.”Murmu got engaged in the issue and voiced her opinions against the chief minister in such a blatant manner. She, however, maintained a deafening silence when Prime Minister Modi and Union minister Shah, on more than one occasion, asked people to vote for the BJP by exploiting the high office’s non-partisan nature. It does not serve the cause of dignity and gravitas that the office demands.She attended a function organised not by the West Bengal government but by a private entity. It is claimed by the State government that President’s Secretariat was on board on every decision including change of venue. So Murmu publicly airing her displeasure after her secretariat is involved in the organisation of the event does not serve the cause of the high office she occupies.K.R. Narayanan’s exampleDuring the tenure of President Narayanan, once deputy chief minister of Odisha Hemananda Biswal invited him by bypassing the government of the state to attend a programme in Odisha. The matter was referred to the state government and when it stated that it had nothing to do with the programme President Narayanan declined the invitation.It would be salutary for President Murmu to follow the examples of her distinguished predecessors to act in accordance with the might and majesty of the office she occupies.S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.