President Murmu unfair in criticising ‘protocol breach’ in Darjeeling
Droupadi Murmu expresses disappointment over poor turnout at 9th International Santal Conference, but her criticism of Bengal govt appears unjustified
President Droupadi Murmu, while addressing the 9th 9th International Santali Conference in Darjeeling on Saturday, 7 March 2026, described West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as her “younger sister” and wondered if she was angry with her. “If the President visits a place, the chief minister and the ministers should also come. But she did not... I am also a daughter of Bengal. Mamata didi (sister) is like my younger sister. I do not know why she is angry with me but I wish her well,” the President said.
She was received and seen off by the mayor of Siliguri, the District Magistrate of Darjeeling and other state government officials. However, the public airing of her grievances about a ‘breach of protocol’ blew up into a full-scale political row. Starting with the Vice President, the prime minister and the home minister, several union ministers, BJP leaders and BJP’s IT cell were quick to condemn the West Bengal government and the chief minister. The breach of protocol, which requires the chief minister to nominate a minister or a state government’s representative to receive the President, was widely condemned by them as an ‘insult’ to the President, to tribals and to the Santhals in particular.
Mamata Banerjee in turn explained that she was informed of the presidential visit just two days before the event; she added that she had no idea about the private organisation which had invited the President. The chief minister pointed out that the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s schedule of the event—which is determined in advance with exact timings mentioned for each ceremony and address along with the names of people who would be allowed on the dias — made no mention of her. She was not expected to be with the President on the stage.
The chief minister took to X late on Saturday and released some of the correspondence the state government had with the Rashtrapati Bhavan about the event. It showed that the state government had expressed its reservations about the event and the Darjeeling district magistrate had reported that the organisers were ill-prepared to host the event. This was communicated to the advance team from New Delhi which arrived in Siliguri on 5 March 2026 to oversee the preparations. The Rashtrapati Bhavan decided to ignore the advice and went ahead with the scheduled programme.
Had the Rashtrapati Bhavan exercised due diligence? Available details do not suggest it did. The International Santal Council, a ‘non-political’ organisation of Santal intellectuals, claims to have organised the 6th, 7th and 8th international conference in 2006, 2011 and 2018 before hosting the 9th conference on 7 March 2026. There are sparse details about these conferences in the public domain except that the 8th conference in 2018 was held at Bokakhat in Assam. The council has a Facebook page and on Saturday it hosted a video in which one of the organisers Naresh Murmu dwelt at length on the economic empowerment of the Santhals and the need for ‘self-determination’.
It is not clear why the 9th international conference was hosted in 2026, an election year in West Bengal; or how the dates were determined, just days before the election is due to be notified. In any case, the programme of the President is determined by the President’s secretariat in consultation with the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) and the concerned state government. The hosts are vetted and every minute of the event starting with the President’s arrival is mapped and circulated. Security is tight and nobody, literally nobody, can gatecrash a presidential event without a valid entry pass.
The President could not have been ignorant of these nitty-gritties. Yet she chose to blame the state government for keeping the Santhals away. She was not addressing a political rally that was open to everyone. If the state government had allowed people to attend without valid passes and security clearance, that would have been a serious breach of protocol.
After attending the conference at Gossainpur, President Murmu travelled about 30 kilometres to Bidhan Nagar, near Bagdogra Airport in the Darjeeling district and expressed her anguish over the change of venue to Gossainpur. “They (state government) had said this place (Bidhan Nagar) is congested. But I think five lakh people could gather here easily. But I don’t know why they took us there... I don’t know what went through the administration’s mind that they chose a place for the conference where the Santhal people could not go... I am very sad that the people here were unable to reach the conference because it was held so far away,” the President said.
Has it occurred to the President, the PM and the HM that the Darjeeling district administration had advised a change of venue to a smaller place because they were sceptical about the host’s ability to mobilise a large enough audience? In any case, the Rashtrapati Bhavan would have cleared the venue after physical verification and after getting the go-ahead from the MHA and the local intelligence unit? So, why is the President blaming the state government?
The President’s outburst has a context as well. The only time President Murmu has voiced her outrage in public over a rape-and-murder incident was when she wrote a widely published article expressing her fear and revulsion over the rape and murder of a doctor intern at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Is it really a coincidence that the only time President Murmu has complained about an alleged breach of protocol also involves the West Bengal government?