‘135 cr people are laughing, we are not children’: Vice President Dhankhar criticises Parliament chaos
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar reminded Rajya Sabha members to not behave like children and create more chaos in the parliament. His remark “we are not children,”came as Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s recently pointed at the BJP and RSS’ “total lack of contribution” to the Independence struggle.
“This kind of display of conduct and behaviour gives us a very, very bad name. We are setting a very bad example. People outside are disillusioned,” said Rajya Sabha Chairperson Dhankhar.
In the midst of the shouting, he stood up and pointed to both the ruling and opposition benches saying, “Before he could say, “Even the wholesome observations of the Chair are indigestible,” he repeatedly said, “one second.” What a terrible situation we are in. Believe me, 135 crore people are making fun of us. What level have we descended to, they are contemplating.”
Dhankhar was enraged when members of the BJP-led ruling alliance disrupted Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Kharge later repeated his point without using the dog analogy he had used at a rally in Rajasthan.
In his lesson on discipline, Dhankhar, a lawyer by training, said, “Something may have been said outside the House in a moment of excitement.”
Such an utterance may or may not have basis. There may even be two different opinions on what was said. But that should not mean that when the House Leader speaks, there’s disturbance from the [Opposition side]; and when the Leader of Opposition speaks, there’s disturbance from the other side. Is this a tit-for-tat?” he added.
Additionally, he instructed the members to provide evidence for any claims they make in the House that they do not want taken off the record.
“In performing my constitutional duties, I will neither look at this side, nor at this side; I will look only to the Constitution,” he said.
Rejecting calls for an apology, Kharge claimed that because the remark was made outside of the House, during a stop on the “Bharat Jodo Yatra” in Alwar, Rajasthan, it could not be discussed in Parliament.
However, he defended his position: “You are asking those who fought for the country’s independence to apologise?”
He had claimed at the rally in Alwar that the Congress had won India’s freedom and that its leaders, including Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, had given their lives in defence of the nation.
“Has even your dog at home died for the country? Still, they claim to be patriots and if we say something we are termed as deshdrohi (anti-nationals),” the Congress president had said.
