New Delhi: Is there more to Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sudden resignation from the post of Vice President than meets the eye? At least the Congress thinks so.
The party’s Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday that there are “far deeper reasons” behind the resignation. He referred to the ‘deliberate’ absence of Union ministers J P Nadda and Kiren Rijiju from the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting chaired by Dhankhar on Monday.
“Yesterday, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar chaired the Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha at 12:30 PM. It was attended by most members, including Leader of the House J P Nadda and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju. After some discussion, the BAC decided to meet again at 4:30 PM,” Ramesh posted on X.
“At 4:30 PM, the BAC reassembled under the chairmanship of Shri Jagdeep Dhankar. It waited for Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju to arrive. They never came. Shri Jagdeep Dhankar was not personally informed that the two senior Ministers were not attending. Rightly, he took umbrage and rescheduled the BAC for today (July 22) at 1 PM,” he added.
“So something very serious happened yesterday between 1 PM and 4:30 PM to account for the deliberate absence of Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju from the second BAC yesterday,” Ramesh claimed.
While respecting Dhankhar’s decision to quit on health grounds, the Congress leader hinted at “far deeper reasons for his resignation.”
“Now in a truly unprecedented move, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar has resigned. He has given health reasons for doing so. Those should be respected. But it is also a fact that there are far deeper reasons for his resignation. While always lauding post-2014 India, he spoke fearlessly for the welfare of farmers, forcefully against what he called ‘ahankar’ in public life, and strongly on judicial accountability and restraint. 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,” Ramesh said.
“Shri Jagdeep Dhankar’s resignation speaks highly of him. It also speaks poorly of those who had got him elected as Vice President in the first instance,” he added.