Opposition Onslaught on Jagdeep Dhankar Amid Strategy Rethink
Maharashtra CM calls on Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar. Image credit Sansad TV
Congress Targets Jagdeep Dhankar while Giving Benefit of Doubt to Om Birla
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 12: The conduct of the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar while presiding the upper house of parliament has earned an impeachment motion from the Opposition. The Congress is showing now signs of sobering even after humiliating electoral drubbing in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains nonchalant to ruckus in parliament. Modi spent entertaining time with the Raj Kapoor clan yesterday while parliament was in turmoil. The members of the Raj Kapoor clan partook in Modi’s soft conversation laced with nudges for desirable actions from the filmmaker family.
The Opposition lacks number to help the impeachment motion against Dhankar see light of the day. The motion will be defeated. Yet, the Opposition exhibited a purpose of unity in targeting Dhankar.
The principal charge of the Opposition against Dhankar is that he is biased. Dhankar indulges in favouritism, the Congress alleged. Dhankar from the Chair has expressed his good fortune that “PM Modi gave him opportunity to listen to a prime minister speaking in his third straight term in the House”.
Dhankar never covered his colour of loyalty. He has always functioned in manner that is now the ground for the Opposition to move the impeachment motion against him. Dhankar has been ‘Dhankar in Chair’ since 2022. Certainly, Dhankar’s alleged favouritism for the ruling alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot be a sudden revelation for the Opposition.
Pollster Sanjay Kumar wondered why the Opposition has spared the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. He argued that the accusations that the Opposition is levelling against Dhankar will also hold against Birla.
Birla and Dhankar have a lot in common per parliament observers. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi reminded Birla in the House this year that he bent at 90 degrees before Modi. The occasion was the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker. Birla had acknowledged Gandhi’s congratulations with a cold face.
That the Opposition is sparing Birla while launching the onslaught on Dhankar signals a strategy rethink in the Congress. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the most loyal ally of the Congress, has been sanguine about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the Opposition. The RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav seems to have forgotten the bonhomie with Gandhi while cooking ‘Champaran Mutton’ last year.
The Congress by leading the impeachment campaign against Dhankar is seeking the Opposition parties to close ranks. “The hope from the Lok Sabha verdict is fast receding after the dramatic turnaround in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress leadership was seen slipping in comfort zone after the Lok Sabha poll verdict,” said a senior Congress functionary.
Join the WhatsApp Channel of The Raisina Hills
Follow on Google News https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMNK2vwsw39HWAw?hl=en-IN&gl=IN&ceid=IN%3Aen
About The Author
