After bitter RS showdown, Opposition mulls resolution for Dhankhar's removal as VP

On Friday, as Parliament’s monsoon session – the first full-fledged session of the 18th Lok Sabha – concluded, there were definite signs that the trust deficit between Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and the INDIA bloc MPs had widened to unbridgeable proportions. The stormy face-off between the chairman and the INDIA bloc MPs shortly before Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die has now forced the Opposition to consider moving a resolution seeking Dhankhar’s removal as Vice President.

Though there is no clarity yet among INDIA bloc members on when, if indeed, such a proposal would be moved, given that the monsoon session concluded ahead of its scheduled final sitting of August 12, the overwhelming view within the Opposition was that it stood “no chance of getting our voice heard” in the Rajya Sabha as long as Dhankhar remains the House Chairman.

Deliberations to continue

Senior leaders of the INDIA bloc, sources said, are expected to continue discussions to explore when and how they should move the resolution for Dhankhar’s removal as Vice President.

As per the Constitution, the process for seeking the Vice President’s removal isn’t as cumbersome or daunting as the one laid down for the President’s impeachment. Article 67 (b) of the Constitution reads, “Vice-President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People; but no resolution for the purpose of this clause shall be moved unless at least 14 days' notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.”

In essence, the Opposition can seek Dhankhar’s removal from office after serving a fortnight’s notice of the intention to move such a resolution. Of course, the resolution would pass only if the Opposition can muster a majority in the Upper House; a threshold that INDIA bloc is aware it won’t be able to cross with its current strength of 87 members against the NDA’s 106.

Strongest form of protest

Yet, as one senior INDIA bloc MP pointed out, “moving a resolution to seek his removal, though it will never be passed, is the strongest form of protest we can register against the Chairman’s blatantly partisan conduct of House proceedings”.

Sources told The Federal that “nearly all” Rajya Sabha MPs of the INDIA bloc had already consented to sign the resolution, whenever it is moved. Efforts could be made by the top leadership of the alliance to also seek support of former Andhra chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and former Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which have 11 and 8 MPs, respectively, in the Rajya Sabha.

Dhankhar and INDIA bloc MPs have often engaged in as bitter an exchange of words as is typically expected between the Treasury and Opposition Benches. That this acrimony would only intensify after the June 4 general election results was always expected given that the Opposition, now emboldened by its increased bench strength in the Lok Sabha, viewed Dhankhar’s conduct of Rajya Sabha proceedings as heavily tilted in the BJP’s favour.

INDIA bloc leaders told The Federal that though they had hoped Dhankhar would be more “mindful of the mood of the country reflected in the recent Lok Sabha results” and “allow the Opposition to perform its duty as a check against the government”, the chairman had “unfortunately continued to act in a partisan manner, often behaving as if he and not JP Nadda was the Leader of the House”.

Situation deteriorating fast

Though Dhankhar and the Opposition had sparred bitterly on several issues since the commencement of the monsoon session, and also during the inaugural session of the 18th Lok Sabha, the situation had deteriorated severely over the past few days.

On Thursday, the Chairman practically got into a slanging match with voluble Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien over the latter’s strident demand for a detailed discussion on the disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat from the Paris Olympics. After denying O’Brien’s request and scorching him with a “how dare you shout at the Chair” reprimand, Dhankhar had abruptly walked out of the House.

On Friday, what started with a mild but firm argument between Dhankhar and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh quickly precipitated into a full blown verbal duel. Ramesh had pressed Dhankhar to give his ruling on the Congress demand for expunging certain remarks made by BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari in the House a few days earlier against Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge.

Dhankhar insisted that Tiwari and Kharge had already resolved the issue during a meeting in his Chambers and that the BJP MP’s statements, made in Sanskrit, were in “high praise” of the LoP but were “misunderstood”. Ramesh and Pramod Tiwari, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, disagreed with the chairman and claimed that since the BJP MP had made the remarks against Kharge on the floor of the House, the clarification, and an apology, should also be made on the floor of the House and “not inside Chambers”.

Face-off with Jaya Bachchan

As Dhankhar rebuffed the demand from the Congress MPs, the Opposition began protesting. Matters came to a head when Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan took exception to Dhankhar’s tone and was shouted down by the Chairman.

A few days earlier, Bachchan had already got into a mild verbal spat with Dhankhar and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh after the latter called Jaya Amitabh Bachchan. Taking offense, the actor-turned-politician, a fifth term MP, had said she should be called just Jaya Bachchan and did not need to be identified by the name of her husband. Dhankhar had later told Bachchan that the deputy chairman was merely following rules by calling her as per her name mentioned on her election certificate. Jaya, and several other women MPs, had expressed surprise at the Chairman’s explanation, asserting rightly that this was “never done” before and that “reducing a woman MPs identity to just that of someone’s wife” betrayed a patriarchal mindset.

On Friday too, when Bachchan wanted to speak, Dhankhar called her out as Jaya Amitabh Bachchan. Though she seemed to take that in her stride initially, even opening her abruptly cut short submission with “main Jaya Amitabh Bachchan”, her polite disapproval of the chairman’s “tone” plunged the House into complete chaos, with Dhankhar outshouting the competing vocal might of the Treasury and Opposition benches.

“Jayaji, you have earned a great reputation. You know an actor is subject to the director. You have not seen what I see from here,” Dhankhar told Bachchan, before bursting into a full-throated howl, telling the SP MP, “I don’t want schooling. I am a person who has gone out of the way and you say my tone... Enough of it; you may be anybody, you may be a celebrity. You have to understand the decorum. I will not bear it... never carry an impression that only you build reputations, we come here to build reputations.”

Sonia, Jaya bury the hatchet

The chairman’s bluster, though not out of character as Dhankhar has similarly reprimanded Opposition MPs on many occasions in the past, often calling them a nuisance and even asserting, as he did yet again on Friday, that they were out to destabilise the country, triggered an uproar in the Opposition Benches. Moments later, with Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi leading the way, the Opposition staged a walk out.

Outside Parliament, flanked by Sonia, Bachchan told reporters that nothing short of an apology from the chairman would be acceptable to her after the way she was “insulted”. The scene of Sonia standing firmly in solidarity with Bachchan was yet again a reminder of how fluid and unpredictable politics can be. The Nehru-Gandhis and the Bachchans may have once been thick but the two families had hardly seen eye to eye for the past three decades as Amitabh turned politically promiscuous and Jaya a vocal Congress critic while being an SP MP. Now that the top leadership of the Congress and the SP had united against the BJP, Sonia and Jaya Bachchan also seemed to have buried their hatchets, politically at least.

The Opposition’s united protest against him, however, did not deter Dhankhar. With the Opposition having walked out, Dhankhar gave the floor to the Treasury Benches to launch a blistering condemnation of the INDIA bloc MPs.

Dhankhar slams Opposition

Later, Dhankhar too slammed the Opposition while echoing the views of the government, heaping sparsely veiled praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even indicating that while the INDIA bloc may be “targeting the chairman”, its “real target” was Modi.

“We are in the making of Bharat into a Viksit Bharat. The world is recognising us. Accolades are pouring in from all quarters... We are on a way to a development journey... India has leadership continually in its third term... after six decades India has a leadership in Prime Minister that has global recognition. The nation is proud of it. And, some people, taking note of happenings in the neighbouring country, are engaging in inflammatory and condemnable narrative,” Dhankhar said.

In comments remarkably similar to those of BJP spokespersons, the chairman went on to assert, “These are not ordinary disruptions, let me tell you. These are not ordinary disturbances. They are a mechanism to throttle debates, a mechanism to insult democratic values... what they have done is trivializing democracy and institutions, for just a petty gain, at the cost of the nation... It was a concerted movement. The physically charged movement was aimed at destroying an institution. A sacrilege was taking place before my own eyes.”

“This virus will destroy democracy. I know they are not targeting me. They find it indigestible that a government is in place for a third time continually... The challenge I know is not to me at all. In the entire mechanism, the challenge is to the elected government that they want to start here... enough is enough. They want to put the democracy in peril. They want to sacrilege this temple of democracy and they want to do it in a vengeful manner in the presence of the top leadership,” Dhankhar added.

Opposition’s counter-strike

The chairman’s remarks, predictably, left the Opposition even more riled than it was when it had staged a walkout. In a counter-strike, senior Congress MPs Pramod Tiwari and Ajay Maken too launched an all-out attack at Dhankhar.

“The Rajya Sabha chairman’s conduct has been partial. The Opposition is not being allowed its say. The mic of the LoP is turned off, the chairman doesn’t allow the LoP to speak and even when the LoP is given the floor, the chairman keeps interrupting him... the entire Opposition believes that the chairman has been conducting the House proceedings with a bias in the government’s favour and against us... this is not how Parliament should function; it is against parliamentary conventions,” Tiwari told reporters.