Jaya Ho Jagdeep Dhankhar

Friday 9th August, 2024, trouble broke out in the Rajya Sabha when the Congress MPs demanded an apology from BJP member Ghanshyam Tiwari for a comment he had made on Mallikarjun Kharge last week.

Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (and Vice-President of India) Jagdeep Dhankhar did not agree with the Congress MPs demand. He said the matter had been resolved in his chamber, hence the demand was  not tenable.

In fact, Dhankhar said, Tiwari had praised the Opposition Leader Kharge to the position of God quoting a Sanskrit shloka. But the Opposition MPs insisted that either Tiwari be asked to repeat his words or Kharge be allowed to speak on the issue. The Opposition benchers protested when the Chair did not yield to this demand. At this point, according to press reports on Saturday morning, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva said, the tone of the statement makes all the difference. Probably the word ‘tone’ was used first here by DMK’s MP.

It was then Jaya Bachchan, MP of Samajwadi Party (SP), expressed her desire to speak on the issue and Dhankhar called her by her full registered name, Jaya Amitabh Bachchan. And she spoke. As per Saturday’s newspaper, she said: “I am an actor. I understand body language and expression. Please forgive me but your tone is unacceptable. We are colleagues sir, you may be sitting on the Chair.”

This was the trigger. This apparently annoyed Dhankhar. He shot back: “Enough of it. Jayaji, you’ve earned a great reputation. You know, an actor is subject to the director. You’ve not seen what I see from here… I don’t want schooling. I am a person who has gone out of the way and you say my tone…”

At this point, an Opposition Member objected but Dhankhar went on: “You may be anybody, you may be a celebrity, (but) you have to understand the decorum. Nothing doing.”

Even as Dhankhar said this to Jaya Bachchan, an infuriated Opposition began to shout slogans. As this verbal skirmish continued between the Chairman and the Opposition MPs, one TMC’s MP reminded Chair about Jaya Bachchan being an MP and not a ‘celebrity’ in the House as described by the Chair. The Chair, Dhankhar, shot back in his own style, with cool measured words: “A senior Member of the Parliament has no licence to run down the reputation of the Chair, to question tone and tenor.”

While reading this report in The Times of India, that gave a comprehensive report with quotes and later seeing the renowned dancer Sonal Mansingh, former Rajya Sabha member, speak to Times Now TV channel, I was reminded of the ‘Meditations’ of Marcus Aurelius. This Roman Emperor and Philosopher, was a classic example of a Philosopher-King, like our own Krishnaraja                                                            Wadiyar IV of a 600-year-old Wadiyar dynasty of Mysore. The book ‘Meditations’ is a manual of piety filled with wisdom, practical guidance and profound understanding of human behaviour.

Reading the verbal slangingmatch between that learned, experienced, patriarchal advocate-politician, nay Statesman, Jagdeep Dhankhar and Jaya Amitabh Bachchan, I felt sorry for the noble Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and disappointed at the conduct of Jaya Amitabh Bachchan. Worse, Jaya Amitabh Bachchan had the gumption and audacity to demand an apology from the Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

True, unquestionably she is a great actor, has given a number of sterling performances in the films, but that does not entitle her to be so presumptuous to take on the Chairman on an issue that was trivial and already resolved. No wonder a person of the stature of Sonal Mansingh, a former Rajya Sabha member, danseuse par-excellence and a greater artiste than some who are now members of Rajya Sabha, spoke the way she did to Times Now TV. The bottomline of her narrative, disapproving of Jaya Amitabh Bachchan’s conduct in the Rajya Sabha, was quite eloquent. Sonal Mansingh said: “This is the 5th time Jaya Bachchan is in Rajya Sabha and she should know the rules, regulations and decorum, to be observed.”

It is important for we Indians, who wish to live in peace unlike what we see in our neighbouring two countries, to leave behind our caste, creed, religion, political identity and reflect deeply on what the Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said when the Opposition MPs staged a walk out:

“I know you are wanting to destabilise the entire nation. You are out to create chaos in the House.”

He told Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha:

“You are determined to have your way at the cost of the Constitution. It is lack of decorum, disrespect to Democracy, disrespect to Constitution.”

This rebuke should not surprise intelligent Indians who have seen the way both Democracy and Constitution were treated by Congress in the past and the mindset does not seem to have changed. Yes, they do but only during the election season when the Congress leaders speak of saving Democracy and protecting the Constitution.

If blatantly disrupting the Rajya Sabha session and staging a walk-out for trivial reasons is not disrespecting both Democracy and the Constitution, what is? Perish the thought, but those who want peace and harmony in the country should learn from the conduct of these Opposition members and be warned. Remember, forewarned is forearmed.

I guess there could be no propitious moment for those of us who have seen our Democracy and the Constitution since Nehru’s days and for those in the Opposition to learn from the wisdom of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, than this:

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. …We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

In a similar spirit All the four pillars of our Democracy — Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the Press — should work together like feet, hands, eyes and two rows of teeth (Upper House and Lower House!). Not to work together and behave like what the Opposition did in the Parliament last Friday is not good for our country. It may not augur well for our Democracy either.

Let us stop allowing our minds to be a slave to evil forces of infidelity and treachery within or without our country. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar has cautioned us: If India loses, who wins? Our Vice-President in a rare insight into our Constitution said: “Lifeline to our life is our Constitution.” Let us respect our Constitution by conducting ourselves as per the Constitution while we were members of those Constitutional Institutions. Rajya Sabha is one such Constitutional Institution.

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