Govt notifies Dhankhar’s resignation after surprise exit; Harivansh takes RS charge

The government on Tuesday notified the resignation of 74-year-old Jagdeep Dhankhar from the position of Vice-President, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishing the veteran leader from Rajasthan “good health”.

By Tuesday evening, buzz had grown around Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh as a probable contender for the V-P’s post. Harivansh’s meeting with President Droupadi Murmu fuelled this talk, as did the fact that he belongs to election-bound Bihar and the ruling BJP could gain in the eastern state by fresh political signalling around the second-highest constitutional office of India.

That said, politicians across parties spent most of the day speculating as to why Dhankhar resigned. The government backed the former 14th V-P’s “excuse” of health, but an unamused Opposition — mainly the Congress, led by chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh — flagged “far deeper reasons” behind Dhankhar’s exit than those cited.

Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha JP Nadda, however, dismissed Ramesh’s claims that he and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had absented themselves from the RS Business Advisory Committee meeting chaired by Dhankhar last evening without intimation and so Dhankhar had “rightly taken umbrage”. “This is not correct, the V-P office was informed,” Nadda said on Tuesday, after PM Modi posted a very matter-of-fact message on Dhankhar’s resignation. “Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji has got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities, including as the Vice-President of India. Wishing him good health,” the PM said on X, in a post read as curt and cold — one that mirrored a souring of ties between Dhankhar and the government.

The former V-P’s Monday move of accepting and then mentioning in the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition-led motion for the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma in the “cash-at-judge’s-house” matter was the last straw for the government. This changed the government’s entire calculus. It had planned to pilot the Justice Varma removal proceedings in the Lok Sabha and had spoken openly about it through Rijiju.

But Dhankhar accepted a parallel solely Opposition-led motion in the Rajya Sabha after 152 MPs of the Lok Sabha submitted a similar notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday. This upset the government’s strategy completely, with sources saying Dhankhar did not even inform the government of the Opposition motion, which the ruling party MPs were therefore unable to sign. This left the government embarrassed.

Once parallel motions came to both Houses on the same day, the process changed entirely, said a source. The Tribune had reported that as per the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, which governs procedures for removal of a judge, in case a motion for removal is presented to both Houses on the same day, the presiding officers jointly constitute a three-member probe committee. Once this committee submits its report, proceedings to remove the judge unfold in the House whose presiding officer is senior.

Going by Monday’s events, the motion to remove Justice Varma would have come up in the Rajya Sabha because Dhankhar was senior to Birla. This would mean the government’s narrative of fighting corruption in higher judiciary falling into the Opposition’s lap — a prospect the government was unwilling to accept.

Official sources said senior ministers met PM Modi on Monday after Dhankhar accepted the Opposition motion and reportedly did not inform the government about it. It was amid these developments that Nadda and Rijiju skipped the House committee meeting Dhankhar was to chair at 4.30 pm. It is also learnt that the government had begun taking signatures of BJP MPs on a “significant motion”, whose nature was not revealed to them. Government sources said it was a motion for the RS signed by ruling alliance MPs to remove Justice Varma and some even indicated that the motion was against Dhankhar, although no one seemed to know the actual structure of the document that was signed.

With Dhankhar gone, the government on Tuesday resumed its original plan to pilot in the Lok Sabha the motion to remove Justice Varma. Home Minister Amit Shah met Birla at his residence on Tuesday evening, hours after senior ministers met the Speaker in Parliament.

Once the Speaker admits in the LS the motion moved by 152 MPs of all parties, a three-member probe committee will be formed, paving the way for Lower House proceedings to remove the judge. The Opposition, meanwhile, appeared divided today on the issue of defending the former V-P. After the Congress questioned Dhankhar’s exit as unprecedented, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi reminded it of the Opposition-led impeachment motion against him in December 2024.

That move against Dhankhar was led by the Congress, which had then described him as a “government spokesman”. Jairam Ramesh had at that time accused the V-P of being partisan. But today, Ramesh questioned the PM’s tweet on Dhankhar and said, “The PM’s non-post on X regarding Dhankhar’s forced resignation has only added to the mystery of his abrupt exit. Surely the PM could have been a bit more gracious — he is, after all, the supreme master of hypocrisy. The kisanputra is being denied even a dignified farewell.”

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