Defending Dhankhar but eroding dignity of vice president

Jagdeep Dhankhar has eroded the stature of the position, which was once occupied by stalwarts like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Gopal Swarup Pathak, M Hidayatullah, and K R Narayanan

The fallout of the Opposition’s unprecedented move to bring a resolution for the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has undermined the dignity of the constitutional office of Vice President.

The government has done little to resolve the issue by seeking a compromise through dialogue and discussion with the Opposition.

With all channels of communication between the Treasury benches and the Opposition broken, the Opposition’s criticism has become confined to what will be at best a symbolic censure given time constraints and its lack of adequate strength in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

Maintaining effective communication with the Opposition benches is the job of the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. Kiren Rijiju, is a personable individual but has clearly not got a mandate from above to initiate reconciliatory processes. He has been reduced to siding with the vice president to deride the Opposition.

The ruling party has in effect shown little concern for the dignity of the high constitutional office by focussing on attributes of the individual occupying the post.

Party MPs are being fielded to present Dhankhar, as a ‘Jat vice president’ and a ‘humble farmer’s son’, who is being targeted by the Opposition. The Opposition’s criticism of Dhankhar’s role in Parliament is sought to be reduced to defaming Jats who are ‘patriots’ and ‘have shed their blood for the freedom of Hindustan and for Hindustan.’

Is there merit in the Opposition’s charge that the ‘biased and partisan conduct’ of the Rajya Sabha Chairman makes him the ‘biggest disrupter of Rajya Sabha’? Prima facie, the answer is yes. He has been accused of not letting Opposition leaders finish speaking by interrupting them, and there are allegations of their mikes being switched off.

He has provoked Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, sufficiently for him to post on social media that, ‘While trampling of ‘democracy’ and ‘subjugation of truth’ has become the autocratic norm in Rajya Sabha... assault on established ‘parliamentary practices’ is promoted and ‘ethical conduct’ stands liquidated in Rajya Sabha.’

Kharge has further accused Dhankhar of ‘persistent heckling, unwarranted insistence on authentication, unfair remarks, and the refusal to list issues of public importance for discussion’.

These charges cannot be defended simply by claiming that the Opposition is attacking a Jat leader.

One might be forgiven for wondering why the ‘humble farmer’s son’ did not let the Opposition raise the farmers’ issue in the Rajya Sabha, describing their concern as ‘crocodile tears’. Nor were his Jat credentials on display when he did not let the Opposition raise the issue of wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a Jat, being denied the silver medal in the Paris Olympics. He accused the Opposition then of trying to ‘monetise’ and ‘politicise’ the issue and, thereby, showing ‘the greatest disrespect to the girl.’

Among other egregious acts of the Rajya Sabha chairman that the Opposition has pointed to is his refusal in August 2023, to accede to the Opposition’s request to instruct the prime minister to be present in the House for the discussion on the Manipur situation. In December of the same year, he suspended 45 sloganeering Rajya Sabha MPs who, on the issue of a breach of Parliament’s security, wanted Union Home Minister Amit Shah to make a statement in the House. Nor is frequent criticism of Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi becoming of someone holding constitutional office.

Dhankhar was once a Janata Dal MP who hopped to the Congress to become an MLA and finally to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In response to a remark from an Opposition MP that members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were getting preference in government jobs, he did not ask the government to answer the charge claiming that the RSS had ‘unimpeachable credentials’ and was engaged in ‘national service’. Calling the RSS ‘a global think tank of the highest order’ he declared that the MP’s comments were against the Constitution of India and ordered that the MP’s comments be excised from the record.

He went on to enigmatically describe himself as the ‘Eklavya of the RSS’ and spoke of ‘how after joining the organisation he wished that he had started his political career with the RSS itself.’

Why would someone, occupying a secular constitutional position, wave the ideological flag of the RSS all of a sudden? Dhankhar may not be a mass leader, but he is canny enough to know where his interests lie.

As the Governor of West Bengal, he seems to have learnt his lesson that pandering to the ruling party and harassing its political adversaries leads to bountiful rewards. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge left nothing to the imagination when he called out Dhankhar’s pandering to the government saying, ‘It seems he is working for the government for his next promotion.’

It may be that the government does not feel threatened because the Opposition has neither the dates nor the numbers to get a resolution passed. The 14 days’ notice required to move the motion would go well beyond the Winter Session making the motion infructuous. Nor does the Opposition have the numbers either in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha to see the resolution through.

The government, therefore, seems to be prepared to ride out the media headlines that it thinks may be the only consequence of the Opposition’s move. By the time the Budget Session of Parliament begins, new issues will overshadow this one. Meanwhile, it can try to pass off this embarrassment as the Opposition’s personal animus towards Dhankhar.

The issue, however, is that he has eroded the stature of the position, which was once occupied by stalwarts like Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Gopal Swarup Pathak, M Hidayatullah, and K R Narayanan.

The Opposition’s aim is purely symbolic — to tell the nation that Dhankhar is partisan and operates almost as if he were part of the government. He has eroded the crucial role that the vice president plays in keeping our democracy in good health.

(Bharat Bhushan is a New Delhi-based journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.