No-trust to praise — Opposition turnaround on former VP
On December 10, 2024, the Opposition had submitted a notice for motion of no-confidence against Dhankhar, accusing him of bias in conducting House proceedings — the first such notice against an RS Chairman since the constitution of the Upper House on April 3, 1952.
Congress chief whip in the RS Jairam Ramesh had then said, “All parties belonging to the INDIA group have had no option but to formally submit a no-confidence motion against the RS Chairman for the extremely partisan manner in which he has been conducting the proceedings of the Council of States.”
However, today Ramesh defended Dhankhar with BJP’s Nishikant Dubey and even opposition Shiv Sena UBT’s Priyanka Chaturvedi reminding him of the December move against the then VP.
Jairam recounted Monday’s events and said Dhankhar chaired the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting of the Rajya Sabha at 12.30 pm which Leader of House JP Nadda and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju attended. “At 4.30 pm, the BAC reassembled under Dhankhar. But Nadda and Rijiju never came. Dhankhar was not personally informed that the two were not attending. Rightly, he took umbrage and rescheduled the BAC meeting for today at 1 pm. So something very serious happened yesterday between 1 pm and 4.30 pm to account for the deliberate absence of Nadda and Rijiju from the second BAC meeting yesterday,” said Jairam. Nadda denied this charge today, saying that the VP office had been informed of their absence.
Jairam called Dhankhar’s Monday evening resignation truly unprecedented and said “he has given health reasons …but it is also a fact that there are far deeper reasons for his resignation”.
The Congress leader lauded the former VP, saying that he spoke fearlessly for farmers, forcefully against “ahankar” in public life, and strongly on judicial accountability.
“To the extent possible under the current G2 ruling regime, he tried to accommodate the Opposition. He was a stickler for norms, proprieties and protocol, which, he believed, were being consistently disregarded in both his capacities. Dhankhar’s resignation speaks highly of him. It also speaks poorly of those who had got him elected as the VP in the first instance,” said Jairam who in December 2024 had defended the move of no-confidence against Dhankhar.
The Opposition’s no-confidence motion against Dhankhar had said “Chairman Dhankhar has reduced the prestige of the position he occupies to that of a spokesman for the government of the day”.
Even as the West Bengal Governor from 2019 to 2022, Dhankhar had faced demands for removal.
Five ruling Trinamool Congress MPs, in December 2020, presented a memorandum to then President Ramnath Kovind seeking his removal and accusing him of taking orders from “political masters in Delhi”.
In 2021, Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee complained to LS Speaker Om Birla about “excessive interference” by Dhankhar in the functioning of the Assembly.
In February 2022, a PIL in the Calcutta High Court sought to direct the Centre to remove Dhankhar since he “was acting as the mouthpiece of the BJP, interfering in the functioning of the state government and maligning its image”. The petition was dismissed.
From Raj Village to Capital corridors Born in Kithana village of Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu on May 18, 1951 Went to Sainik School, Chittorgarh, graduated in physics and later law from University of Rajasthan; designated senior advocate by the HC of Judicature for Rajasthan from March 1990 onwards Became Kishangarh MLA (Ajmer) in 1993; was Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs under late PM Chandra Shekhar and entered the ninth Lok Sabha in 1989 from Jhunjhunu Joined the BJP in early 2000s and went on to head its legal cell before being made the West Bengal Governor from 2019 to 2022. Elected VP in August 2022. His tenure as VP was to end on August 10, 2027
From Raj Village to Capital corridors
India