President Murmu expresses dismay as Dhankhar mimicry row takes centrestage

 The controversy over a TMC MP mimicking Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar took political centrestage on Wednesday with the issue playing out inside and outside Parliament and President Droupadi Murmu joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi in expressing dismay.

As Dhankhar, also the Rajya Sabha chairperson, said in the House that he would not tolerate any insult to Parliament or the post of vice president, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said he did not intend to hurt anyone with his act in the Parliament complex on Tuesday. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee backed her party colleague, and the Congress slammed what it termed the government’s “desperate attempt” to divert attention from the unprecedented suspension of over 140 MPs by raising the matter.

Expressing their solidarity with Dhankhar, ruling party members, including ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and Nitin Gadkari, participated in Question Hour proceedings in the Rajya Sabha but remained standing for about 10 minutes.

In a rare intervention in an unfolding political debate, President Murmu said on X she was dismayed to see the manner in which the 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. That has been the Parliamentary tradition we are proud of, and the People of India expect them to uphold it,’ Murmu said.

Responding to the president’s post, the Rajya Sabha chairperson thanked Murmu for her kind words and the timely reminder that basic courtesies must always remain.

‘I am committed to upholding Constitutional principles till my last breath. No insults can prevent me from doing so,’ Dhankhar posted on X.

The Vice President’s Secretariat also put out a post on X.

‘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,’ it said.

‘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 in the post.