‘Insulted for 20 years’: PM Modi dials V-P Dhankar over mockery incident

Vice president of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said that he received a telephone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the abject theatrics of some opposition MPs

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar to express “pain” over the alleged disrespect shown to his office by some of the suspended MPs who mimicked his style of presiding over the House.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and vice president of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar. (File)

Dhankar shared the details of the PM’s conversation with him in a post on X on Wednesday. “Received a telephone call from the Prime Minister, Shri @narendramodi Ji. He expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday,” he wrote.

He went on to say that the PM shared his own experience of having been belittled. “He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for twenty years and counting but the fact that it could happen to a Constitutional office like the Vice President of India and that too in the Parliament was unfortunate,” Dhankar wrote.

Dhankhar, who gave a stern response to videos of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Bannerjee mimicking him on the steps of Parliament, added, “I told him- Mr. Prime Minister, the antics of a few won’t prevent me from performing my duty and upholding the principles enshrined in our Constitution. I am committed to those values from the bottom of my heart. None of the insults will make me change my path.”

He said, “...I had suffered... Mr Chidambaram, your party put a video on Instagram, which was withdrawn later on. That was a shame to me. You used the official Twitter (now X) handle of the spokesperson to demean me, insult me, insult my background as a farmer, my position as a Jat, insult my position as a chairman...these are too serious issues.”