Dhankhar's move to examine oppn's notice raised suspicions
NEW DELHI: "Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar ji has had many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities, including as Vice-President of India. Wishing him good health,"
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
posted on X, shortly after President Droupadi Murmu accepted Dhankhar's resignation.
Going by sendoff messages for politicians, the post was starkly terse and conveyed the tension that resulted in Dhankhar's abrupt resignation as vice-president on Monday evening. Political circles were quick to note that the PM had refrained from commenting on the outgoing VP's functioning as chairman of the Rajya Sabha: something that was taken as confirmation that Dhankhar's decision on Monday to admit the opposition's notice for the motion of removal of Allahabad HC's Justice Yashwant Varma, despite having known the govt's decision to start the process in the Lok Sabha (which TOI had reported on Tuesday, had not gone down well).
The contrast from the effusive praise for Dhankhar three years ago, when the Modi govt elevated him to the second highest constitutional position, was glaring and fully captured the radical change in equations since he was plucked from near-obscurity to be appointed governor of West Bengal in 2019, a big "opportunity" that had come his way courtesy the current central dispensation.
If brevity was the PM's chosen weapon to convey the disappointment, his senior cabinet colleagues said it all through sheer silence on their X handles.
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NDA partners were also equally conspicuous by their reticence, the sole exception being the Andhra ally, Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan.
The 'cancellation' was a measure of the annoyance Dhankhar managed to generate by his moves through Monday, starting with his unusual generosity towards LOP Mallikarjun Kharge.
Dhankhar's move to examine oppn's notice raised suspicions
The then Chairman, whom the opposition had relentlessly targeted for being partisan, chose to let Kharge speak ahead of the leader of the House and health minister J P Nadda, although by convention, the latter should have been given precedence.
That Kharge launched a sharp attack on govt and the PM over the Pahalgam terror attack and US President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim of having forced India and Pakistan to halt Operation Sindoor only added to the irritation that had begun to build up on treasury benches and which found expression in Nadda's uncharacteristic "only what I say is going to be on record" assertion to protesting opposition members.
But it took the second 'provocation' of the day - Dhankhar's announcement post-lunch about having received a notice from 63 members in support of a motion for the removal of Justice Varma, and his directive to examine where it would stand vis-a-vis a similar move made by 153 members in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day - that turned the smouldering annoyance into anger and, crucially, sparked suspicion about his intent.
All signatories to the RS notice were, in contrast to the all-party complexion of what had earlier been submitted in Lok Sabha, from the opposition - something which militated against govt's known desire for a "consensus" backing for action against Justice Varma's alleged corruption and could not have escaped Dhankhar's attention. Dhankhar's indulgence of the opposition would have ensured him a say in the choice of the three-member panel that is required to go into the charges of corruption against the judge.
Already upset with him over the barbs he would routinely train at the judiciary, as well as the perception that they were officially sponsored, govt did not take kindly at the meddling.
Similar activism from Dhankhar had earlier led Supreme Court to drop its inquiry against Allahabad high court Justice Shekhar Yadav in a case of alleged hate speech and fling the ball back into the Rajya Sabha's court.
What followed was a flurry of moves.
Amid deepening suspicions about the intent and buzz of a "secret deal", BJP managers scrambled to get the NDA contingent to sign off on a similar notice. Such was the hurry that many RS members trooping into the chamber of defence minister Rajnath Singh did not even get to see the text of the notice as they put their signatures on the paper put up before them.
Simultaneously, both Nadda and parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju decided to skip the business advisory committee meeting Dhankhar had convened in the evening, leaving it for minister of state L Murugan and BJP's chief whip K Laxman to represent the governing side.
The message for Dhankhar was clear and he lost little time in heeding it. Just hours later, he rushed to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit his resignation on "health" grounds.
The dominant estimate in political circles is that he is not going to quietly fade away. Many feel the Supreme Court lawyer, who started off with Janata Dal and did a stint with Congress before landing in BJP, may launch himself in a different version: as a farm leader.
There was also a sudden outbreak of "sympathy" for him in opposition quarters, with even Congress and Trinamool Congress, his chief tormentors, seeking to portray him as a victim.
But he appeared to be receding from the proceedings he would lord over when presiding officer Ghanshyam Tiwari announced that his resignation had been accepted.
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