The issue of Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar snowballed into a major controversy on Wednesday, with President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing their disapproval to the act publicly.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was targeted by the BJP for filming Mr. Banerjee’s act on his phone, hit back by saying that he shot the video of MPs sitting outside Parliament and asked “why is there no discussion [in the media] over 150 [Opposition] MPs being thrown out of the House”.
Also read: Police complaint against TMC MP for mimicry of Vice-President in Parliament
“Who insulted and how? MPs were sitting there, I took their video which remains on my phone,” Mr. Gandhi said.
In a rare public comment on a developing political debate, Mr. Murmu, in a post on X, said she was dismayed to see the manner in which the Vice-President was humiliated in the Parliament complex.
“Elected representatives must be free to express themselves, but their expression should be within the norms of dignity and courtesy. That has been the Parliamentary tradition we are proud of, and the People of India expect them to uphold it,” Ms. Murmu said.
The Vice-President’s Secretariat also put out a post on X to inform that Mr. Modi had called Mr. Dhankhar to express “great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday”.
“He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for 20 years and counting but the fact that it could happen to a Constitutional office like the Vice-President and that too in Parliament was unfortunate,” Mr. Dhankhar was quoted as saying in the post.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also met Mr. Dhankhar to express his concern about the “serious misdemeanour” by some MPs in Parliament complex.
As the mimicry issue played out both inside and outside Parliament, the Congress said the “entire Modi ecosystem” was now being galvanised on the “so-called mimicry non-issue” while it remained silent on how BJP MP Prathap Simha “facilitated” the entry of two intruders into the Lok Sabha.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also shared an old video of Mr. Modi mimicking someone inside the Lok Sabha.
In the eye of the storm, Mr. Kalyan Banerjee said he did not intend to hurt anyone with his act and insisted that he had not named anyone.
“I have not taken anyone’s name and mock Parliament was going on. If he has taken it upon himself, then I am really helpless. I have never any intention to hurt anyone,” Mr. Kalyan said.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who was in the Parliament complex to meet the Prime Minister, played down the incident while backing her party colleague.
However, Mr. Kalyan was not part of the Trinamool delegation that met Mr. Modi even though he was scheduled to be part of it.
Ms. Banerjee told reporters that the incident should be taken casually. “We respect everyone. This was not about disrespecting any one,” she said, adding, “You people would not have known about it if Rahulji had not recorded it.”
In the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Dhankhar said the act of mimicking him and its videography caused an “insult” to the honour of the post of the Vice-President, the farmers, and his own community.
