Mimicry row: Will not tolerate insult to vice president’s post, says Dhankhar; it’s an art, reacts TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee

NEW DELHI, Dec 20
A day after a video from Parliament showing Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee ostensibly mimicking the Vice President went viral, Jagdeep Dhankhar said that he will not tolerate any insult to Parliament and the post he holds, while the TMC MP retorted that mimicry was an art that was also done by the Prime Minister.
On Tuesday, in a video clip, Banerjee, surrounded by other Opposition leaders, was seen ostensibly impersonating the Rajya Sabha Chairperson and saying: “My spine is so straight, I’m so tall,” which also featured Rahul Gandhi appearing to record the TMC MP.
It all started on Tuesday after a video from Parliament showing TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee mimicking Jagdeep Dhankhar, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recording it. Dhankhar, reacting to it, called the act “shameful, ridiculous and unacceptable”.
When the Rajya Sabha reconvened around noon, Dhankhar, addressing a Congress leader, said, “Just a while ago I saw on a television channel that there is no limit to how low one can stoop (girawat ki koi hadh nai hai). Your senior leader was found shooting a video of an unparliamentary act of one of the suspended MPs, sitting out on protest… I just want to say that good sense (sadbuddhi) may prevail on them.” Referring to Rahul Gandhi, he said, “Office of Chairman, Rajya Sabha and Office of Speaker are very different. Political parties will have their cross currents, they will have exchanges, but imagine a senior leader of your party videographing another member of another party… Mimicry of the Chairman, mimicry of Speaker. How ridiculous, how shameful, how unacceptable.”
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a call with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, expressed great pain at the “abject theatrics” of some of the MPs, President Murmu said she was dismayed to see the manner in which our respected Vice President was humiliated.
“I was dismayed to see the manner in which our respected Vice President was humiliated in the Parliament complex,” President Murmu posted on X on Wednesday. “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,” the post added.
Meanwhile, PM Modi also expressed great pain at the “abject theatrics” of some of the MPs. “Received a telephone call from the Prime Minister, @narendramodi Ji. He expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday,” the Vice President’s Secretariat said.
“He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for twenty 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,” Dhankhar posted on X. However, he added that this won’t prevent him from performing his duty. “I told him-Mr. Prime Minister, the antics of a few won’t prevent me from performing my duty and upholding the principles enshrined in our Constitution. I am committed to those values from the bottom of my heart. None of the insults will make me change my path,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress leader at the centre of the row, said that said that his intention was never to hurt anyone.
“I have no intention to hurt anyone. However, I have a question. Does he (Jagdeep Dhankhar) really behave like this in Rajya Sabha? Mimicry is an art and it was also done by the PM in Lok Sabha between 2014 and 2019,” Kalyan Banerjee added. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar Wednesday said he will not tolerate any insult to Parliament and the post of vice president, while expressing deep anguish over TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking him. In the Rajya Sabha, the chairman said the act of mimicking him and its videography has caused an “insult” to the honour of the post of the vice president, the farmers and his own community.
When the House met at 11.45 am after the third adjournment, Dhankhar expressed his anguish over Tuesday’s incident and asked the Congress party, including Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, to ponder over it. “I am not bothered if anyone insults Jagdeep Dhankhar but I cannot bear that I could not protect the honour of my post. It is my duty to protect the honour of the House,” Dhankhar said. Rejecting claims that he shared the mimicry clip on Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said the video which he took “remains on his phone”.
Questioning “who disrespected and how,” Gandhi said, “MPs were sitting there, I took their video which remains on my phone.
The media continues to show it and is making remarks, Modi ji is making remarks, nobody has said anything.”
He also questioned why was there was no discussion over MPs being “thrown out” of the House. “Our 150 MPs were thrown out, but there is no discussion in the media on that; no discussion on Adani, Rafael and unemployment,” he said.
Amid a row over the mimicry of Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Wednesday said caste should not be dragged into every issue and questioned if he should rake up his Dalit origins every time he is not allowed to speak in Rajya Sabha.
Speaking to reporters, Kharge said the Chairperson’s job is to provide protection to other members but he himself is making such a statement.
“I am also not allowed to speak in the House, so should I also say that I am not being allowed to speak because I am a Dalit,” he said and added that “one should not provoke people outside by talking about casteism inside the House.”