Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed disappointment at the act of mocking him by senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee and the recording of this act by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
During a protest in front of the new Parliament building, Mr. Banerjee had mimicked Mr. Dhankhar when Mr. Gandhi was filming it in his mobile phone. Leader of the House and Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi condemned the act and said it is demeaning of not just the Chair of the House, but also the farming and Jat communities to which Mr. Dhankhar belongs. The Opposition is protesting in and outside the Houses demanding a statement by Home Minister Amit Shah on the incident of the breach of security in Lok Sabha.
In his brief statement, Mr. Dhankhar said the act was one of the lowest levels that the country had witnessed. Addressing senior Congress MP P. Chidambaram, he said: “Imagine what must be going through my heart when your senior leader videographs a Member of Parliament mocking the institution of Chairman, as an individual take on me.” Mr. Dhankhar and Mr. Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress had engaged in a series of verbal volleys when the former was the Governor of West Bengal.
“Don’t take on my background as a farmer, don’t take on my background as a community member,” he said referring to the Jat community that he belongs to. Mr. Dhankar pointed out that the Chairman’s post has been “ravaged” by an MP videographing another member mocking him.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman said he had suffered at the hands of Congress. “On Instagram, Mr. Chidambaram, your party put up a video which was withdrawn later on. That was a shame to me. You used official Twitter handle of the spokesperson to demean me, insult me, insult my background as a farmer, my position as a Jat, insult my position as a Chairman,” he added.
Later, Mr. Joshi and Mr. Goyal condemned the act and said it shows the character of the congress and the INDIA bloc which is against farmers and Jats.
