On Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remark that the act of mimicking him is an “insult” to the farmers, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “One should not provoke people outside by talking about casteism in the House.”
Mallikarjun Kharge took a dig at Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday for saying that the act of mimicking him is an “insult” to the honour of the post of the vice president, the farmers and his own community.
“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…You cannot imagine what has happened. Such a big incident took place. The post was disrespected. The farmers’ community was insulted. My community was insulted, and you are silent,” Dhankhar was quoted by PTI as saying on Tuesday.
Reacting to Dhankhar’s comments, Kharge said, “(The Rajya Chairman said) it is an insult to farmers…the Chairman should provide security to the MPs inside the House…now if I am not allowed to speak, should I say it is because I am Dalit?”
Meanwhile, Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to say that “the entire Modi ecosystem (has) now being galvanised on the so-called mimicry non-issue”.
He accused the Narendra Modi government of being “silent on the real issue of why and how a BJP MP from Mysuru facilitated the entry of two intruders into Lok Sabha on December 13th — who are now charged under the anti-terror law UAPA.”
Ramesh said, “The entire ecosystem is also silent on the summary suspension of 142 MPs for making a perfectly legitimate demand.”
In another post earlier on X, Ramesh alleged that a desperate attempt is being made to divert attention away from the unprecedented suspension of MPs by raising the issue of ‘mimicry’.
“Remember who mimicked whom and that too in the Lok Sabha?” Ramesh said and shared a video clip of Prime Minister Modi’s speech in Lok Sabha after Rahul Gandhi had hugged him in 2018.
A political row broke out on Tuesday after Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee mimicked Dhankhar during the opposition’s protest on the stairs of Parliament against the MPs’ suspension.
As the video went viral on Tuesday, Banerjee drew criticism from BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP also attacked the opposition over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi making a video of the performance by Banerjee.
Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said PM Modi spoke with him to express “pain” over the alleged disrespect shown to his office by some of the suspended MPs who mimicked his style of presiding over the House.
Under fire from the members of the Treasury and the BJP-led Centre over his mock impersonation of Dhankhar, suspended TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee on Wednesday clarified his conduct saying he did not intend to hurt anyone.
“I respect Dhankar Sahib a lot. He’s also a senior advocate, I’m too. I’ve great respect for Dhankar-ji. Firstly, he belongs in the same profession as me and secondly, because he was formerly a governor (of West Bengal). He is our Vice President,” Banerjee said.
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