Suspended from Parliament, opposition leaders on Tuesday staged protests on the stairs of the building with Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee breaking into an impromptu skit mocking Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Rahul Gandhi making a video of the performance, sparking a political controversy.
The targeting of the vice president drew sharp reactions from the BJP as the Rajya Sabha chairman himself termed the opposition actions as “shameful” and “insult” of his background as a farmer and “position as a Jat”. “Imagine what must be going through my heart when your senior leader videographs a Member of Parliament mocking the institution of the chairman… Don’t take on my background as a farmer,” Dhankhar said in Rajya Sabha, addressing senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.
“A member of Parliament videographing another one, for what. I had suffered, I tell you, on Instagram, Mr Chidambaram (who was present in the House), your party put a video that was withdrawn later on that was shame to me. You used Twitter, the official handle of the spokesperson to demean me, insult me, insult my background as a farmer, insult my position as a Jat, insult my position as chairman,” Dhankhar said.
Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi termed this as a mockery of democracy and the constitutional institutions.
