War of words between Dhankhar, Kharge in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha witnessed a war of words on Tuesday when Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar sarcastically said Jairam Ramesh should take the seat of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, in an effort to discipline the Congress MP. Kharge, who is also the president of the Congress, retorted by saying the chairman was trying to bring in the “Varna” (caste) system.

The acrimony started when Dhankhar asked Pramod Tiwari of the Congress not to state unverified facts. To this, Ramesh said it would be authenticated. “The senior leadership (Kharge) is here. I think you (Ramesh) should replace (Kharge).... You are so intelligent, so gifted, so talented, you should immediately come and take the seat in place of Kharge because, by and large, you are doing his job,” the chairman said. At this point, Kharge retorted by saying “do not bring in the Varna system...that is why you are calling Ramesh very intelligent ... and I am dull”. An agitated Dhankhar accused Kharge of “twisting” his remark and said he never meant it. “Never in the history of parliamentary democracy and Rajya Sabha proceedings has there been such a disregard of the chair,” he said.

Kharge added that whatever he is today is because of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and the people of the country. Later, Tiwari continued his speech on the Motion of Thanks to the president for her address to a joint sitting of Parliament.

Opposition members said the “arrogance” and “vindictiveness” of BJP leaders during elections downgraded the popularity of PM Modi, who now has to depend on alliance partners to provide a stable government.

Trinamool Congress member Kalyan Banerjee said the recent Lok Sabha elections had ushered in a change in the country which now has “an unstable government and a strong opposition”. Banerjee said the PM now has to use two crutches -- Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) -- to run the government. Congress leader K C Venugopal said the BJP leaders were not believers in Hinduism, but only used religion to polarise the electorate and win elections. He said the BJP projected the prime minister as bigger than God, which was the biggest anti-Hindu statement.