War of words and walkout in Rajya Sabha; opposition planning to move to impeachment motion against Vice President Dhankar

NEW DELHI: The clash between Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and the opposition in the Rajya Sabha intensified on Friday. The opposition staged a walkout alleging that the Vice President had insulted Samajwadi member and former Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan. The opposition is planning to move an impeachment motion against the Vice President who supports the ruling party.

The issues started after BJP MP Ghanshyam Tiwari made some derogatory remarks against Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on August 1. Kharge said he was disappointed by Tiwari's remark. Dhankar rejected the Congress's demand that Tiwari should apologize and that the remarks made by the BJP leader should be removed from the record. He said that Tiwari's remark was not an accusation but a compliment and that the two leaders had discussed and resolved the issue. Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Pramod Tiwari and Ajay Maken argued with Dhankar over this.

In the meantime, Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan pointed out that the tone used by the Vice President was not right. She said that she is an actress and can understand people's body language and expressions. She also stated that she and Dhankar were similar and the only difference between them was that the latter was sitting on the chair of the Rajya Sabha speaker.

Irked by this, the Vice President retorted that he does not want schooling and that he does not go by any script and has his own script. He added that he was denying the MP's allegation.

Following this, the opposition MPs led by Sonia Gandhi staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha alleging that the Vice President had insulted Jaya Bachchan.

Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Speaker was repeatedly insulting the opposition MPs and denying them the opportunity to speak.

"The Vice President's words are unbecoming of Parliament. He is showing disrespect to female members," he said.