After an acrimonious end to the Winter Session over suspension of several MPs from Opposition benches, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar is learnt to have reached out to top Opposition leaders — Mallikarjun Kharge and Sharad Pawar — by writing letters where the chairman has justified the suspension of members from the Upper House by terming it “unavoidable” due to their “extreme degree of misconduct” and he had “risen to the occasion” when the temple of democracy was “sacrileged”.

In a letter to Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, the Rajya Sabha Chairman said rendering the House dysfunctional by making a demand to the Chair that cannot be acceded is unfortunate and against public interest.Dhankhar wrote to Kharge stating that the Congress leader’s refusal to meet him during the Winter session of Parliament was not in sync with parliamentary practices and has also sought an interaction with him, sources said on Friday.  This comes a day after the Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die on Thursday, a day ahead of schedule.

In another letter to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Dhankhar also voiced his anguish over the “widespread perception of ‘politicisation’” of the issue of security breach in Parliament on December 13 instead of display of “collective concern” on the incident. “When temple of democracy is sacrileged, surely, you’d agree as concerned senior Parliamentarian, that the Chairman has risen to the occasion,” he said.

Pawar had written to the Rajya Sabha Chairman seeking his intervention on the issue of suspension of members from the House for displaying placards and raising slogans demanding Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on the security breach in Parliament when two protesters jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber and set off smoke canisters.