In a first, Congress-led INDIA Bloc of Opposition parties on Tuesday submitted a notice to bring a motion in Rajya Sabha for the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, accusing him of “partisan” conduct as the chairman of the Upper House. Dhankar is Chairman of the Upper House.
If the motion is moved, these parties need a simple majority to get it passed, but they do not have the requisite numbers in the 243-member House. Opposition members, however, insisted that it was a “strong message to fight for parliamentary democracy”. Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju dubbed the move as “extremely regrettable” and said the government is very proud of Dhankar.
On behalf of the Opposition, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Naseer Hussain submitted the notice signed by 60 Opposition Members of Parliament, including from the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI-M, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Samajwadi Party (SP), to Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody.
The present move, spearheaded by the Congress, comes in the wake of verbal clashes between Opposition parties and the Rajya Sabha chairman. The Opposition has been upset with Dhankhar over multiple issues. The latest trigger was allowing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members to raise the allegations of links between Congress leaders and organisations backed by billionaire investor George Soros which the ruling party claims are involved in “anti-India activities”.
The Opposition said his conduct of the House on December 9, 2024, was particularly one-sided and totally unfair, and said he was “encouraging and provoking” the Treasury Benches to make outrageous remarks. INDIA Bloc parties had in August this year also considered submitting a notice for moving a resolution to remove the vice president from his office.
This is the first time that a notice for bringing a motion to remove the Vice President has been moved in the Rajya Sabha. A 14-day notice has to be given and it should be approved by the Deputy Chairman before the motion is taken up.
Interestingly, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the floor leaders of various Opposition parties are not among the signatories to the notice. Similar notices for removal of the Speaker of Lok Sabha have been submitted in the past, but none against the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman. Three motions have come in the past against Lok Sabha Speakers, against GV Mavalankar on December 18, 1954, against Hukam Singh on November 24, 1966 and against Balram Jakhar on April 15, 1987.
While the motions against Mavalankar and Jakhar were negatived, that against Hukam Singh was rejected as less than 50 members rose in the chair to take up the motion.
Congress chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh said they were pained to move such a notice against the Chairman, but were “forced” to do so after he “crossed all limits” on Monday by allowing several members of the treasury benches to speak against top Congress leadership in the House.
“All parties belonging to the INDIA group have had no option but to formally submit a no-confidence motion against the learned Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for the extremely partisan manner in which he has been conducting the proceedings of the Council of States. It has been a very painful decision for the INDIA parties to take, but in the interests of parliamentary democracy they have had to take this step,” Ramesh shared on social media.
According to Article 67(b) of the Constitution: “Vice-President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People; but no resolution for the purpose of this clause shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.”
The motion submitted by Opposition MPs condemned the “partisan conduct” of the Rajya Sabha Chairman, and said it is “unbecoming of high-level Constitutional authorities that are expected to act in accordance with and in furtherance of the principles enshrined in the Constitution of India.”