Jagdeep Dhankhar has said he was "deeply pained" by the mimicry act
A day after a Trinamool MP's mimicry raised a political storm, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar said he doesn't care if he is insulted as an individual, but won't tolerate the insult of Vice-President's office. Without naming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he questioned the sanskaar (values) of those who filmed and amplified Trinamool Congress Kalyan Banerjee's mimicry on Parliament premises yesterday.
Addressing Congress MP Digvijaya Singh in Rajya Sabha, Mr Dhankhar questioned the "silence" of top Congress leaders on the episode. "You say your party is 138 years old. Your silence is ringing in my ears. (Congress chief Mallikarjun) Kharge ji's silence in ringing in my ears. Everyone knows what is happening," he said.
"A person derives fun (from the mimicry) by videographing it, amplifies it. These are the manners? The level is so low now?" he added.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman said he doesn't care if he insulted. "But the office of the Vice-President, the farmers' community, my community... I will sacrifice... I tolerate if someone insults me. Khoon ke ghoont pita hoon, but I will not tolerate if I feel that I could not protect the decorum of this position," he said. 'Khoon ke ghunt pee kar reha jana' is a proverb that means suffering grief silently.
Mr Dhankhar made the remarks amid sloganeering by the BJP MPs, who stood in Rajya Sabha for an hour this morning as a show of support to the Vice-President.
Mr Banerjee's act of mimicry was caught on camera yesterday during a protest by suspended Opposition MPs at Makar Dwar - one of the entry points to the new Parliament building. Mr Gandhi filmed the act.
The Trinamool MP has said he had no intention to hurt anyone and termed mimicry an art. Mr Banerjee as also said Prime Minister Modi had mimicked Opposition leaders inside the parliament. He has also said he was not a Rajya Sabha member and did not know how Mr Dhankhar held proceedings in the Upper House.
The Vice-President yesterday said he was "deeply pained" by the episode and that it was an insult to his farmer family background and the Jat community he comes from. Several Jat organisations have protested against Mr Banerjee's act, saying it amounted to insulting the community.