Protocol snub, impeachment motion: Why Dhankhar called it quits

A few months after he became vice-president, Jagdeep Dhankhar met then-US president Joe Biden in Cambodia to attend a multilateral summit in November 2022. Biden reportedly told Dhankhar: “Just like you, I was also once vice-president.” Dhankhar said he was following in Biden’s footsteps.

But Dhankhar’s presidential ambition may remain a distant dream after he abruptly resigned as vice-president and chairman of the Rajya Sabha, citing “health” reasons on Monday, the first day of the Parliament’s monsoon session. A few months ago, Dhankhar had undergone an angioplasty at AIIMS in Delhi.

His itinerary for the last month shows that he visited his home state of Rajasthan, along with Uttarakhand, Bihar, and Kerala to attend various events.

At an event in Rajasthan on June 30, Dhankhar said he was neither under pressure nor put others under pressure. Minutes before Dhankhar’s speech, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot wondered if the vice-president and Rajya Sabha chairman was “working under pressure”.

However, opposition leaders have claimed that there was more to Dhankhar’s resignation than what meets the eye.

Impeachment motion a factor?

Medical reasons aside, the immediate trigger for his resignation could be the opposition’s impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Verma over corruption allegations. Dhankhar accepted it, surprising the Narendra Modi government, which also wanted to move a similar motion, said BJP sources.

“The acceptance of the Verma motion also meant that we would have been forced to discuss Justice Shekhar Yadav’s case. The government wasn’t ready for it,” said a BJP source.

Fifty-five MPs moved a similar impeachment motion against Justice Yadav, an Allahabad High Court judge, in December last year after his communal remarks at an event organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. On Monday, Dhankhar ordered an inquiry after finding that one member had signed twice – a reason for delay in taking up the motion.

Moreover, sources said Dhankhar felt “slighted” when the leader of the upper house, JP Nadda, and union minister Kiren Rijiju skipped the crucial business advisory committee to discuss the agenda of day-to-day business at 4.30 pm. This came hours after Dhankhar accepted the opposition motion for Justice Verma’s impeachment.

According to media reports, Nadda clarified that he and Rijiju couldn’t attend the BAC meeting, and the vice-president’s team was informed about it.

Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh claimed that no-show from two ministers did not go down well with Dhankhar. 

“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 at 1 PM,” Ramesh posted on X.

Protocol stickler

According to a source, Dhankhar had felt sidelined for some time on the question of protocol. When US vice-president JD Vance visited India, Dhankhar didn’t receive his US counterpart nor host the state dinner. A BJP source said Dhankhar was kept out of Vance’s India itinerary.

This came after Dhankhar, a lawyer by profession and known for his criticism of the judiciary, criticised a Supreme Court direction to the president. He said that the Supreme Court was acting like a “super Parliament”. The court had earlier sought to fix a timeline of three months for the president to give her assent to bills referred by governors.

Dhankhar had earlier questioned the delay in filing FIR in the cash recovered case involving Justice Verma.

As West Bengal governor until 2022, Dhankhar had run-ins with chief minister Mamata Banerjee over protocol. Dhankhar was “deeply hurt and disturbed” after he was not seated on the main stage during a Durga Puja event hosted by Banerjee.

In another controversy, employees of Sansad TV, headed by Dhankhar, were handed one-month contracts last year, Newslaundry had reported. This had more than 180 employees nervous about their job security. Several of them filed separate petitions in the Delhi High Court this year against the decision. Hearing one of the petitions on July 14, the court disposed of it after Sansad TV decided to give two-year contracts and promised to form a committee to look into regularisation of jobs.

Before becoming governor, he had worked with the RSS’s legal wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, since 2010, and advised the BJP on legal matters related to the Ram temple case, Ram Setu, and Malegon and Ajmer blasts. His services were invaluable, in particular to RSS leader Indresh Kumar, who was an accused in the Samjhauta Express and Ajmer blasts of 2007. Dhankhar “guided” Kumar and his legal team, leading to his acquittal in both cases.

Newlaundry had earlier written a deep dive on Dhankhar’s political and personal journey.

With inputs from Basant Kumar.

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