03\/08\/2026March 8, 2026Indian president clashes with state minister ahead of key race in West Bengal<\/p>\n
Indian President Droupadi Murmu is locked in a rare political row with the chief minister of the eastern state of West Bengal ahead of state elections that\u00a0could see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party extend its influence in\u00a0the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dispute began when Murmu visited the state to attend the International Santal Conference. The Santal are\u00a0India’s\u00a0third-largest tribal community,\u00a0according to the\u00a0Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute. Murmu is the first president in India\u00a0from the tribe, which is\u00a0officially recognized as a disadvantaged group.<\/p>\n
In her speech at the conference, Murmu said, “I think someone was stopping them (Santal people) from coming here. On my way here, from what I saw, is this a gathering for the International Santal Conference? I don’t think so. Someone does not want the Santal community to unite,” implying the\u00a0state’s chief minister without naming her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But politicians from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party were more direct. They alleged a lack of basic facilities and a last-minute venue change, according to local media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Referring to West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), Modi said, “The TMC Government of West Bengal has truly crossed all limits. Their administration is responsible for this insult to the President.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Murmu’s comments mark\u00a0a rare public rebuke from India’s president toward\u00a0an elected government. In India, the president,\u00a0a ceremonial constitutional head,\u00a0is expected to remain above internal politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BJP politicians argued that the seriousness of the humiliation forced the president to speak out.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the lapse was on part of the International Santal Council which organized the event,\u00a0not the district administration. “BJP is disrespecting and misusing the highest chair in the country for its own party agenda. Most unfortunate,” she wrote in a social media post on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n
West Bengal is due for state elections in April-May\u00a0and remains one of the few states where Modi’s BJP has not secured\u00a0a victory. With the upcoming polls, politics in West Bengal is only likely to get more heated.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"03\/08\/2026March 8, 2026Indian president clashes with state minister ahead of key race in West Bengal Indian President Droupadi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-319051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}