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By turning symbolic offices into sites of active governance and confrontation with the political dispensation, Dhankhar has both irked political blocs and cemented his reputation as a ‘disruptor of the status quo’.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. (File Photo)
This week, Parliament witnessed a fierce and almost unprecedented debate over a no-confidence motion against Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. The nature of the debate and the allegations listed by the Opposition against the Chairman of the Upper House marked a historic challenge to the nation’s second-highest constitutional authority.
The motion, fuelled by opposition parties, accused VP Jagdeep Dhankhar of bias, overreach, and a pattern of suppressing dissent in the Upper House. While a section of MPs, especially the senior MPs of the ruling party and the allies lauded him as a strict enforcer of rules and a guardian of legislative discipline, a group of critics alleged that his actions mirrored his combative stint as Bengal’s Governor, where he repeatedly locked horns with Mamata Banerjee’s government.
The turmoil on the floor of the house made one thing amply clear that unlike most of his predecessors, Jagdeep Dhankhar has really redefined constitutional positions in every sense of it, while wielding their full authority in ways a very few have dared.
However, this is not the first time that he is facing such resistance. In fact, Mamata Banerjee’s government and her party had time and again made moves demanding removal of Dhankhar from the position of Bengal’s governor. Their actions also included a petition to the President seeking his removal. Their efforts continued between 2020 and 2022. But, why is Jagdeep Dhankhar seen as a ‘disruptor’, and an ‘iconoclast’?
‘Disruptor’ of the status quo
A stickler for legalities, Dhankhar’s unconventional and unyielding approach — whether as Bengal’s Governor or as Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson — has upended the tradition of these roles being largely ceremonial. By turning symbolic offices into sites of active governance and confrontation with the political dispensation, Dhankhar has both irked political blocs and cemented his reputation as a ‘disruptor of the status quo’, as he is mentioned by a senior Opposition MP.
This is the reason he always – be it as the Governor or the chairman in Rajya Sabha – finds himself at the epicentre of political turbulence, with his strict enforcement of parliamentary rules sparking sharp opposition criticism.
In West Bengal, Dhankhar intervened in the selection of Vice Chancellors of university citing alleged ‘malpractices’ in the system of appointments, refused to sign in some bills the state government wanted to pass in the assembly, voiced his concerns time and again against the incidents of political violence, travelled to locations to see situations. These instances and many more earned him the wrath of Mamata Banerjee’s government and Trinamool Congress, that called his office as ‘state head quarter of the BJP’. Dhankhar accused the government of keeping the Raj Bhavan under surveillance. His tenure as the Governor continued have series of clashes with the government and the ruling party. However, at that time as well, his adherence for the rules and legalities could not be questioned, while the Trinamool Congress accused him of ‘interferences’ into the functioning of an elected government.
In Rajya Sabha, things did not change. Dhankhar, in his maiden speech, mentioning the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). His later reactions to Sonia Gandhi’s comments on judiciary, his acts of suspending members and coming down heavily on senior Congress leaders including Jairam Ramesh and the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge irked the Opposition, especially the Congress. His speech showering praises on the RSS was the last straw.
Known for his uncompromising stance, and sharp knowledge about the legalities, Dhankhar’s current role as the chairperson of the RS, also mirrors the confrontational legacy he left as Bengal’s Governor , where his frequent and fiery run-ins with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee laid bare deep political fault lines.
