Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday dialed Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and expressed pain over the mimicry incident.
Dhankhar who is also Vice President of India, on the X platform wrote, “Received a telephone call from the Prime Minister, Shri @narendramodi Ji. He expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday”.
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“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 was quoted as saying on X.
Yesterday, the Rajya Sabha Chairman suspended Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee who mimicked Dhankhar during the opposition’s protest on the stairs of Parliament.
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was seen making a video of the performance by Banerjee who appeared to mimic the way Dhankhar walked by leaning forward and made reference to having a spine. Dhankhar said he was hurt as his farmer and Jat backgrounds were targeted. Gandhi on Wednesday rejected to comment on the matter.
Droupadi Murmu, President of India also lashed out at the opposition for mimicking Jagdeep Dhankhar. President wrote on the X platform, “I was dismayed to see the manner in which our respected 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”.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, who was recently expelled from the Lok Sabha in connection with the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations, has taken a jibe at Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar over his mimicry incident.
Moitra took a strong reaction against Dhankhar. She said, “RS chairman is upset because he thinks that someone made a mockery of his position. This is obviously unacceptable because he thinks that the only person who is entitled to make a mockery of his position is himself”.