Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 6: Bringing politics in the convocation ceremony of a space science and technology institute, the Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday lashed out at the Congress MP and former union home minister P Chidambaram over his comment that the three new criminal laws that came into force on July 1 were “drafted by part-timers.”
Mr Dhankhar said Mr Chidambaram’s comments were “inexcusable” and an insult to Parliament’s collective wisdom. He demanded that the former minister withdraw his “derogatory, defamatory and insulting” observation. Mr Dhankhar said he was “shocked beyond words” when in the morning he read Chidambaram’s interview to a leading national daily in which he had said that “the new laws were drafted by part-timers.”
Mr Chidambaram in the interview had said the new laws, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Saksha Adhiniyam, had been drafted by “non-professional people” who were “part-time members of a committee.”
“Are we part-timers in Parliament? It is an inexcusable insult to the wisdom of Parliament… I do not have words strong enough to condemn such a narrative being set afloat and an MP being labelled as a part-timer. “I appeal to him (Chidambaram) from this platform, please withdraw this derogatory, defamatory, and highly insulting observation about the Members of Parliament (MPs). I hope he does,” the Vice President said.
Mr Dhankhar was addressing the 12th convocation of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram. “When informed minds knowingly lead you astray, we need to be on guard,” Mr Dhankhar further said.
“This morning, when I read a paper, an informed mind, who had been the Finance Minister of this country, a Parliamentarian for long, and currently a member of the Rajya Sabha, stunned me,” the VP said. Mr Dhankhar said he took pride in the fact that the Parliament did “a great thing” by “unshackling us from the colonial legacy” and giving three laws that were of “epochal dimension.”
The VP, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, said every MP had the opportunity to contribute when the three laws were being debated in the House and passed by Parliament in December, 2023. Mr Chidambaram by not participating in the debate when the three news were being discussed in the Rajya Sabha had failed in his duty. Mr P Chidambaram “must hold himself accountable for the failure of duty on his part, an act of omission/commission, dereliction of duty, which can never be explained,” Mr Dhankhar said.
He added that not only Mr Chidambaram, but other senior advocates who are members of Parliament did not speak during the debate on the bills when they had an opportunity to make their points.
“It was failure on his part to perform his constitutional duty and obligation. And, how can we countenance such a man speaking in high decibel, trying to seek resonance of the people only to unsettle a mechanism? I’m shocked beyond words and therefore, please beware of the minds who deliberately, as a strategy, by way of a narrative try to run down our nation, demean our institutions, taint our progress, don’t see the writing on the wall. They engage in criticism for the sake of criticism. I do not have words strong enough to condemn such kind of narrative being set afloat,” Mr Dhankhar said.