Sravasti Dasgupta 
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha saw dramatic scenes on Friday, August 9, as chairman and vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar squared off with Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan and said that she may be a “celebrity” but needs to follow decorum in the House after she objected to his “tone”. He then proceeded to accuse the Opposition of attempting to destablise the nation, and cause chaos in the House as they staged a walkout.
As Bachchan demanded an apology from the Chair outside parliament, inside the House, in the absence of the opposition, Dhankhar and the treasury benches then discussed for over 40 minutes about how the opposition is looking to “push the country towards anarchy” and passed a resolution condemning the opposition’s behaviour.
During the question hour, Dhankhar had a heated exchange with members of the Opposition, after he said that no further discussion was necessary on BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari’s remarks against Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge in the House last week. Tiwari had said that Kharge’s “entire family is in politics”, following which the Congress MP had demanded that his remarks be expunged. As members of the Congress and other Opposition leaders demanded an apology from Tiwari in the House highlighting the tone used by the BJP MP, Dhankhar allowed Bachchan to weigh in.
“Jaya Amitabh Bachchan” said Dhankhar while allowing her to make her point. Bachchan has earlier in this session, objected to the use of her husband’s name by the Chair and said that “Jaya Bachchan” should suffice. Although Dhankhar has countered her saying that he is only calling her by the name in her Rajya Sabha affidavit and the House records.
“I Jaya Amitabh Bachchan want to say, I am an artist,” said Bachchan.
“I understand body language and expressions. Sir, forgive me but your tone is not acceptable. We are colleagues, sir. You may be sitting in the Chair, and I remember when I went to school..-” she said but Dhankhar interjected amid loud protests from treasury benches.
“I know how to deal with it,” he said.
“Jaya ji you have earned a great reputation. You know an actor is subject to the director. You have not seen what I have seen from here. Everyday. I don’t want to repeat. I don’t want schooling. I am a person who has gone out of the way and you say my tone.”
As Opposition benches started protesting, Dhankhar said: “Enough of it”.
“You may be anybody, you may be a celebrity, you have to understand the decorum, no, nothing doing. I will not bear it. Never carry an impression that only you build reputations. We come here with reputations, we live up to reputations, nothing doing,” he said.
Amid loud protests from both sides, Dhankhar called on TMC MP Sushmita Dev as the next speaker.
“Sir, she is a member of parliament. How can you call her a celebrity sir?” said Dev.
“She’s a senior member of parliament.”
“A senior member of the parliament has the license to run down the reputation of the chair? To question the tone and tenor? Yes I have to be in reaction mode to take care of the situation. To make it a habit,” said Dhankhar.
“My tone, my language, my temper? I don’t go by script of others. I have my own script. I am not operated by anyone else. Nothing will happen Kharge ji. Think from within,” he said.
As Opposition members started walking out, Dhankar said that the Opposition wants to “destablise the nation” and they are walking away from their duty towards the constitution.
“I know you want to destablise the nation. Yes. You are out to create chaos in the House. I shall not be party to this House being converted into an epicentre of disturbance, Mr Kharge. You are determined to have your way at the cost of constitution. You are doing it. It is lack of disrespect to democracy. You are walking away from your duty, obligations. Honourable members they don’t want to participate, they only know how to create chaos. I am surprised. The nation is a priority. The nation is always first,” he said.
Outside the parliament, Bachchan flanked by Congress MP Sonia Gandhi and other Opposition members demanded an apology from Dhankhar.
“I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not school children. Some of us are senior citizens. I was upset with the tone and especially when the Leader of Opposition stood up to speak, he switched off the mike. How can you do this? You have to allow the Leader of Opposition to speak,” she said to reporters.
“I mean using unparliamentary words every time which I do not want to say in front of you all. You are a nuisance, ‘Buddhiheen’. He said you may be a celebrity, I do not care. I am not asking him to care. I am saying I am a member of parliament. This is my fifth term. I know what I am saying. The way things are being spoken in parliament these days, nobody has ever spoken before. I want an apology.”
Opposition ‘pushing country to anarchy’
Inside the House, with the Opposition absent, Dhankhar and the treasury benches discussed the conduct of the Opposition for the remaining 40 minutes till the House was adjourned.
Dhankhar said that the House had commemorated the Quit India Movement earlier but the members of the Opposition had “quit their responsibilities” by walking out.
“They are showing back not to the Chair or House but to the constitution and their sense of duty. How can we suffer? Leading lights of the opposition. Look at the difference. We are looking to make Viksit Bharat. Accolades are pouring in from the IMF, World Bank. Incremental rise in infrastructural growth. We are on our way to a developmental journey that these people want to impede,” he said.
Dhankhar then, without naming Bangladesh, went on to say that some members of the Opposition are attempting to indulge in “inflammatory condemnable narrative” by taking advantage of the political upheaval in neighbouring countries.
“India is a peaceful country, is a stable country and has most functional vibrant democracy. India has leadership continuously in third term. A history in making after six decades. India has leadership in prime minister that has global recognition. The nation is proud of it. And some people taking note of happenings in the neighbouring countries are engaging in inflammatory condemnable narrative,” he said.
“And the ideology to which they subscribe, it has become a habit, with some of them that a segment will speak out against the nation and set afloat a narrative which tarnishes our institutions, weakens our democratic culture. They will expel the gentlemen and take back,” he said in a veiled reference to Congress’ Sam Pitroda.
Dhankhar said that he had sought to resolve differences between Tiwari and Kharge by calling them to his chamber and the matter had been sorted but the issue had been raised in the House as a party of “a design as a strategy as a well planned orchestration to find an alibi to walk out of the house.”
“Today the top brass was here. What I saw was failure to commitment to nationalism, belief in our country, disregard to constitution,” he said.
Dhankhar then continued that the disruptions by the opposition were not “ordinary” but a “mechanism to throttle debate to insult democratic values.”
“I, therefore, appeal to everyone in the country, let the message go that they are trying to trivialise the institutions for just petty gains at the cost of the nation. That will not be countenance,” he said.
He then gave the floor to leader of the House, J.P. Nadda, who said that not only the treasury benches but the whole country is standing with Dhankhar.
“Today’s incident is highly condemnable and concerning. They have stooped to such a level that while opposing a party, and a person now they have started opposing the country. Those forces that want to divide the country, when we see the opposition’s voice, I wonder whether their agenda is to destablise the nation. The entire leadership is ready to ensure that the House does not function. They should apologise for today’s incident.”
Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also rose to say that the Opposition’s behaviour was not only an insult to the Chair but “an insult to the democratic values of the country, democracy and the constitution”.
“Today it has been proved that the irresponsible Opposition is trying to push the country into anarchy,” he said.
Similar statements condemning the Opposition behaviour and hailing the Chair were also made by other members of the treasury benches including HD Deve Gowda and Union minister Jayant Chaudhary, Ramnath Thakur, Ramdas Athawle, K.B. Suresh Reddy, Praful Patel.
Nadda then moved a resolution to condemn the behaviour of the Opposition in the House.
“Today’s incident is condemnable. I would like this House pass a resolution condemning this,” said Nadda.
While the House was then adjourned for an hour, Congress MPs held a press conference outside parliament later in the afternoon and condemned Dhankhar’s actions.
“All opposition parties felt that the attitude of the Chairman was biased. Rajya Sabha sets a standard as to how all the Houses should be run. In such a situation, the Chairman should not support any party there,” said Congress MP Ajay Maken.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said that BJP MP Tiwari was believed to have apologised for making remarks against Kharge in the Chairman’s chamber and they only wanted him to apologise in the House.
“We will continue to raise the voice of the people in a democratic manner, but the resolution brought by the government shows that its attitude is dictatorial,” he said.