Jagdeep Dhankhar is no stranger to disagreements with the opposition. On Tuesday, the vice president became the first person to hold one of the top two constitutional posts to face the possibility of impeachment as the opposition filed a notice of no-confidence motion against him, a first in Indian parliamentary history.
A motion, if introduced, requires the support of a majority of all the members of the Upper House and is required to be concurred in by the Lok Sabha in accordance with Article 67(b). Since the opposition does not have the numbers to pass, this proposal is expected to fail. The Bharat Bloc has 103 members in the House, along with the support of independent MP Kapil Sibal. Even though there are a lot of numbers against it, the opposition is trying to send a message that the speaker is not allowed to speak in the assembly.
Dhankhar was elected Vice President in August 2022 and his term as Rajya Sabha Speaker began on a controversial note in the winter session of that year as he termed the Supreme Court’s 2015 judgment striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act as “shocking”. An example of “serious compromise” of parliamentary sovereignty and “disregard of the mandate of ‘the people'”.
Since then, there have been several instances of him and opposition MPs not seeing eye-to-eye:
- In August 2023, Dhankhar told the opposition that he “cannot and will not” direct Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the House as it was the Prime Minister’s prerogative like any other MP to attend Parliament. He made this statement when the opposition benches were demanding the Prime Minister’s presence in the Rajya Sabha to address them on the Manipur violence issue.
- Relations between the Rajya Sabha speaker and the opposition soured during last year’s winter session when 146 MPs were suspended from both houses of Parliament over demands for Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on Parliament security breaches. Discuss the topic. This is the highest number of suspensions in a session of Parliament.
- When the proceedings stalled, Dhankhar wrote to Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge, about the Leader of the Opposition (LOP)’s “outrage and disruption” in the House. Kharge replied that “he was strongly in favor of dialogue and discussion”. In his letter, Dhankhar highlighted that the latter’s “refusal to meet him to resolve the political impasse” was “out of sync with parliamentary practices” and sought a meeting. Kharge had rejected Dhankhar’s invitation and said in a letter that the mass suspension of MPs was “premeditated” and a “weapon” by the ruling party to sabotage parliamentary practices.
- This June, when Dhankhar was embroiled in controversy after Kharge entered the House to protest the paper leak, Dhankhar said it was the first time the LOP had done such a thing and called it a “stain” on Parliament. Kharge replied that he was trying to get the attention of the chairman who was looking towards the treasury bench.
- In July, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal questioned the manner in which Dhankhar ran the Upper House, claiming that in no country does the presiding officer of the House “repeatedly interrupt” members during his speech.
- The same month, Dhankhar said the RSS had “unimpeachable credentials” and constitutional rights to contribute to the nation’s development. “RSS is a global think tank which is an organization of the highest level…” he said while replying to Samajwadi Party MP Ramjeelal Suman’s comment that the government’s main criterion for appointment is if a person belongs to the RSS. .
- In September, in an apparent reference to Lok Sabha LOP Rahul Gandhi, Dhankhar said, without naming him, that there is nothing more reprehensible than a constitutional post holder becoming “part of the nation’s enemies”. Dhankhar was speaking at the third batch of the Rajya Sabha Internship Program in Parliament. During a visit to the United States that week, Gandhi said that “love, respect and modesty” were missing from Indian politics.
Relations with Mamata Banerjee soured
Before he was elected Vice President, Dhankhar served as the Governor of West Bengal when he had several run-ins with Mamata Banerjee’s government and became an outspoken critic of the state administration.
From the state’s law and order situation and post-election violence to allegations of corruption, alleged bureaucratic blunders and appointment of vice-chancellors in state universities, Dhankhar has never shied away from criticizing the government, accusing him of sitting on important bills. . The situation worsened in 2022 when the governor replaced the governor with the CM as the chancellor of the state’s universities.
His relationship with Mamata Banerjee turned so sour that the CM even blocked Dhankhar on social media. His relationship with Speaker Biman Banerjee was no less bitter in 2021 when the Speaker complained to then President Ram Nath Kovind about Dhankhar’s alleged interference in government affairs.
Dhankhar’s Political Journey
Born in Kithana village of Jhunjhunu district in 1951 in a farmer’s family, Dhankhar studied in a local government school before going to a military school in Chittorgarh. He studied law at the University of Rajasthan and became a professional lawyer, going on to serve as president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association.
Dhankhar started his political journey with the Janata Dal and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jhunjhunu in 1989. After that, he entered state politics and was elected to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly on a Congress ticket in 1993 from Kishangarh. He tried his luck again in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections but lost in a landslide. Since that year, Dhankhar served as a full-time senior advocate in the Supreme Court and joined the BJP in 2003. He advised the party on important legal matters.