"I Am Sufferer...Enduring Insults": Vice President Days After Parody Row

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar today branded himself as a "sufferer" who has to keep enduring "insults", days after a row over a parliamentarian's alleged mimicry of him.

Mr Dhankhar, who chairs the Rajya Sabha, was addressing the current batch of the Indian Statistical Service (ISS) probationers at his official residence.

"I am a sufferer! A sufferer knows how to withstand from within, taking all upfront, enduring all insults, with one direction - we are in the service of our Bharat Mata," he said at the event.

Telling the probationers to learn to endure criticism, he said people don't spare him even though he holds a constitutional post.

"Even in my constitutional position as Chairman, Rajya Sabha and Vice-President, people don't spare me! Should that change my mindset? Should that result in deviation of my path? No! On the path of righteousness, we must always proceed," he added.

Never be deterred by those who have poor digestive system for our growth, he further said, referring to such persons as "chronic critics".

Mr Dhankhar had earlier described the parody act by Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee as a "personal attack" with the ruling alliance even standing in the parliament for an hour in his honour.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dialled him and said he has been at the "receiving end of such insults" for 20 years, Mr Dhankhar had said.

Amid strong BJP criticism, Trinamool and Mr Banerjee had both defended the act by saying "mimicry is an art" and it had nothing to do with Mr Dhankhar.

Mr Dhankhar had been at loggerheads with the Trinamool when he was the Governor of West Bengal, before being appointed as the Vice President of the country.