Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 10: The Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc on Tuesday gave notice for a no confidence motion against the vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar accusing him of bias and ‘partisan functioning’ claiming that he favoured the ruling party during House proceedings and stifled the voices of the opposition.
The notice – with over 70 signatures by MPs from the Congress, Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, Tamil Nadu’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Yadav, the CPI, the CPI-M, the JMM – was submitted to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat under Article 67(B) of the Constitution. Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Naseer Hussain submitted the notice to Rajya Sabha Secretary General P.C. Mody.
However, the sources said the top Congress leaders who hold constitutional posts including the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi have not signed the notice. Similarly the floor leaders of various Opposition parties are also not among the signatories, the sources said.
“ALL parties belonging to the INDIA group have had no option but formally submit a no-confidence motion against Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for the extremely partisan manner in which he has been conducting proceedings of the Council of States,” the Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said on X. “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,” he said.
Trinamool MP Sagarika Ghosh was more forceful in her remarks; she accused the government of “murdering Parliament” and said, “In pursuit of our rights, in order to protect parliamentary democracy, we have given in our resolution of no-confidence… we are not being allowed to raise people’s issues.”
The minimum required numbers for moving a motion to remove the Vice-President is 50. The Opposition has been upset with Mr Dhankhar over multiple issues, the latest being him allowing the members of the Treasury Benches to raise the Cong-Soros “link” issue in the Upper House.
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. 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, however, is unlikely to get through the two Houses of Parliament requiring Mr Dhankhar’s removal, considering the strength of the combined opposition but this has not deterred the opposition, which sources said acted on principle rather than hopes of success.
According to the rules, the motion to remove Mr Dhankhar must be passed by a simple majority – i.e., 50 per cent + one – of voting Rajya Sabha MPs. It must then pass the Lok Sabha by a similar margin. And since the opposition does not have a clear majority in either of the Houses, Mr Dhankhar is unlikely to be sacked.
The notice was submitted shortly after chaos in both Houses – as Bharatiya Janata Party MPs and those from the opposition clashed over various issues, including alleged links between Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and businessman George Soros – prompted Parliament to adjourn for the day.
BJP MPs accused their rivals of not allowing Parliament to function but the opposition hit back by declaring they were not being allowed to raise important issues, such as violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal over the survey of a mosque and farmers’ Minimum Support Price, MSP, protests. “We try, every day to have a discussion, but they don’t want to have a discussion…that is why they get the House adjourned through any reason,” the Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters.
For the BJP, Union Minister Giriraj Singh declared it was the Congress playing foul. “Why are they not clarifying George Soros’ connection with Sonia Gandhi? They are not letting the House run…” he said. Calls for a vote against Mr Dhankhar erupted Monday after chaos in the House; this was after the BJP attacked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over alleged links to businessman George Soros and a media organisation partly funded by his foundation.
The attack – claiming links between Mrs Gandhi and the Democratic Leaders in Asia Pacific Foundation, which has spoken about an independent Kashmir – was led in the Rajya Sabha by the health minister and BJP president JP Nadda, who said the link “maligns India and raises national security concerns. We want a discussion.”
Mr Nadda’s tirade was rebutted by Mallikarjun Kharge, his Congress counterpart, but that response was cut short by shouting between MPs that led to multiple adjournments. The Rajya Sabha Chair’s handling of this face-off was what triggered the Congress’ call for the motion against him; Mr Kharge managed to point out Mr Dhankhar was allowing comments against Mrs Gandhi despite rejecting 11 notices by BJP MPs to discuss this issue.
“What the Leader of the House (referring to Mr Nadda) said is a lie. It is (also) wrong to damage the image of a member who is not present,” he said. And last week the BJP also targeted Rahul Gandhi, calling him a “traitor” and naming him, Mr Soros and “some American agencies” as part of a “triangle trying to destabilise India”.
The concerted attacks by the BJP come as the opposition tries to raise issues like the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal over the survey of a mosque and the United States indictment against the Directors of Adani Green Energy – a renewable energy company owned by the Adani Group.
It also follows a report by French media company Mediapart that claimed “hidden links between the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) and the US government.” The BJP has alleged the Soros-founded OCCRP publishes reports “targeting” India, and that these are then used by the Congress to criticise the ruling party and government, and Indian business interests.
The Congress has just as firmly refuted the claim stating “we are patriots.” The US government has also strongly reacted to the BJP’s claims of links between itself – after it emerged it too funds the OCCRP – and attacks on India. “It is disappointing that the ruling party in India would make these kinds of accusations… the US government works with independent organisations on programming that supports professional development and capacity-building for journalists. This does not influence editorial decisions…” it said.
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.
The TMC claimed that a total of 71 MPs had signed the no confidence motion submitted on Tuesday. INDIA bloc leaders said the opposition parties had required signatures from all INDIA bloc parties in August itself but did not move as they decided to give Dhankhar “another chance but his conduct on Monday” convinced them to go ahead with it.
Congress MP Manish Tewari stated it was evident the government did not want to run the House. He pointed out that there was no provocation when the House was adjourned the previous day without any issues, and similarly, there was no provocation on that day either.
He mentioned that the House had been adjourned for the entire day again and suggested that the government was avoiding a discussion on the 75 years of the working of the Constitution. He concluded that the government’s actions aimed to completely disrupt the Parliament session, offering no other explanation for this behaviour.
Congress MP Rajiv Shukla said it was difficult to understand what could be done when the BJP government itself was not allowing the House to function. He accused the government of making false allegations and stated that Sonia Gandhi did not know George Soros.
Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala said it was the misfortune of the country that the ruling party was not allowing Parliament to function, resulting in a loss of crores of rupees. He emphasized that Parliament was meant to discuss important issues and noted that, for the first time in India’s history, the ruling party was obstructing the proceedings of the House.
BJP MP Arun Singh said the House was running smoothly until the Opposition began creating a disturbance. He accused the INDIA Bloc of making an issue out of nothing and claimed there were connections between George Soros, Sonia Gandhi, and forces working to divide the country. He further asserted that the Opposition consistently brought up such topics before every Parliament session to disrupt House proceedings. Singh mentioned that they had requested the Speaker to allow a discussion on how Congress was supporting anti-India forces.
