In the final stages of the just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament, the row over a Trinamool Congress MP mimicking Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Rahul Gandhi video recording the act on his mobile phone seemed to have armed the BJP-led NDA political ammunition to counter the showdown scripted by the Opposition after the suspension of 142 MPs over Parliament’s security breach issue. Also, the ruling party now appears to be gearing up to turn the episode into a matter of Opposition’s disrespect towards the entire Jat community which Dhankhar represents.
While the BJP is insisting that Rahul, by making a video of TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee who mimicked VP Dhankhar, fuelled this act of insult, the Congress leader has said he simply shot a video of the suspended MPs sitting in the Parliament complex.
The BJP has gone aggressive against the Opposition—which, in the last leg of the session, had been disrupting Parliament proceedings over the suspension of MPs—demanding an apology for showing disrespect towards the Vice President. On the other hand, the Opposition has accused the BJP of trying to divert the attention from the issue of suspension of MPs.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra slammed Rahul Gandhi and said, “By recording the derogatory mimicry of the Vice President, Rahul Gandhi has participated in a highly objectionable and derogatory act that took place in the temple of democracy.”
“His is also an attempt to target a particular community in a planned manner and to direct and ridicule a person sitting on a high Constitutional position. The nation will never forgive and forget the act of Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders,” he said.
Members of Parliament, who are elected by the people, openly ridiculed and insulted the Vice President while sitting on the steps of the temple of democracy. It is not only the insult of the Vice President but also of all our elders and senior citizens whom we all respect, he said.
The BJP is now also looking at turning the mimicry episode into an issue of disrespecting the entire Jat community. “The Jat community is a very self-respecting and righteous community who have never bowed down before anyone. So by saying that the spine of the Jat community has been lowered, it is highly deplorable, objectionable and shameful. It is also an attempt to play with the honour and bravery of the Jat community whose contribution towards nation building is immense,” Patra said.
Since the MP who did the mimicry of Dhankar is from the TMC, his party’s chief Mamata Banerjee tried to downplay the episode and said, “We respect everyone. This is not about disrespect. This is just casually political… Had Rahul (Gandhi) not taken a cellphone video, you would not have come to know about it.”
In an unprecedented development, as many as 142 MPs of the Opposition were suspended while demanding Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on the security breach, in which two men broke into Lok Sabha and set off smoke canisters and a woman and a man did the same outside parliament. A majority of the MPs were suspended for the entire winter session.
The government maintained during the House impasse that security in the Parliament complex is the responsibility of the Lok Sabha Secretariat and it can follow only the Speaker’s orders on the subject. Also, similar breaches have happened in the past and the Opposition is merely politicising the issue this time.