PM-Shah duo will be extra careful now to choose the next Vice President
By Sushil Kutty
As it happens more vice is being foisted upon ousted Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar than if he hadn’t stood his ground and posed problems for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authority. VP Dhankar cited “medical advice” for his “resignation”. But was it resignation or more like quit or…? Dhankar went just like that because Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished it so and the Modi ministers are all of them ‘yes ministers’, who would do his bidding come what may.
The reality is, the Modi government could be as vicious and vindictive as any other government and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar was out on his back just as easily as if it was his own decision. The editor/owner of a TV channel wearing the choga of nationalism wasn’t fooled. The channel was ready and dressed for the kill, gunning for Dhankar from the word go. Sitting tight and spreading the masala that Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar could not be trusted and that the ‘VP’ had “crossed over” to the other side.
Maybe so. Rife speculation took wings. A half a dozen breaches were pointed out. Ranging from cash-rich judge to foul-mouth judge. Also, who can forgive Dhankar lording it over Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chauhan on the farmers’ issue? The Centre didn’t just stumble on the Dhankar problem.
But it is only now that reports are emerging of the Centre reaching out to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar “hours before he quit”, or “made to quit”. Dhankhar “resigned” on Monday in an “unexpected move”. He presided over the first day of the monsoon session in the Rajya Sabha and by 9.30 pm, he wasn’t Vice President! His “resignation letter” was in President Droupadi Murmu’s safe hands.
Just like how the Modi government wanted. Yet speculation was allowed to run riot. The captive media did their job and the government orchestrated with aplomb. By the second day after the “resignation”, VP Dhankar was the villain of the piece. The day of the so-called resignation, central ministers JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju reached out to “VP Dhankar”; the very same two ministers who chose to insult the VP by not attending the Business Advisory Committee meeting called for 4.30pm of the same day.
JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju are two “Modi ministers”. Nadda, particularly, wouldn’t mind telling the Rajya Sabha chairman to his face that “nothing would go on record except for what I am (Nadda) saying”. Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju is another of Modi’s ‘yes ministers’.
Nadda and Rijiju are supposed to have “reached out” to the former Vice President after Modi and his ministers found out that the VP had agreed to an Opposition-sponsored notice for the impeachment of justice Yashwant Varma. One of them even hinted to the “VP” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wasn’t happy about it, but the Vice President told him that he (VP) was acting “within the rules of the House”.
This happened before the BAC meeting, which both Nadda and Rijiju boycotted. The Dhankar matter had to be sorted out in record time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was about to go to the United Kingdom and nothing and nobody could come in the way. The Dhankar lifeline had to be cut. Everybody was against Dhankar; the captive media as well as the captive ministers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew off to London with his Dhankar bellyache gone; his system cleansed of the toxicity of the days since the Monsoon Session convened and Vice President Dhankar was “made to resign”. Now, they’re saying Dhankar, minus his constitutional post, is attempting to do a “Satyapal Malik”; and that there is nothing wrong about his health other than running a temperature against the Modi government.
So, did the two central ministers, JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju, fail in their mission to prevent Vice President Dhankar from making a spectacle out of the Modi government? The answer is ‘yes’. Rijiju apparently told Dhankhar of “a process of building a consensus on the impeachment…” He even indicated the PM’s unhappiness. But Dhankar wasn’t moved. The Vice President was ready to start the impeachment process, ASAP. He had made up his mind and was moving on his own, on his own steam. The Modi government wanted the impeachment to take the Lok Sabha route, Dhankar preferred the Rajya Sabha to take the lead.
Was that the “trigger” as some people are making it sound like? The statement on the impeachment process, the realization that the government had failed to convince the Rajya Sabha Chairman, the two central ministers’ intervention with the ‘VP’; the boycott of the BAC meeting by Nadda and Rijiju. All of these developments were abrupt.
July 21 started off rather tamely. The Rajya Sabha Chairman hunched over his desk on the high-backed chair. His smile a big broad beam as he let Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to make a statement. Then, it was the turn of the Leader of the House JP Nadda…
Next thing you know, things had moved out of the House and out of the hands of the Vice President. The reason why Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar had to go was that he had bucked the Prime Minister’s authority. Just like he had reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his failure to impose the three “black” farm laws by reading out the riot act to Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chauhan.
Last, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, finally caught on that not everybody in the realm he lords over is a sycophant of the finest order. Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Kiren Rijiju and Om Birla have a different kind of relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That there are honourable exceptions like Jagdeep Dhankar. The former Vice President was the sort who seldom crosses Prime Minister Modi’s path and, therefore, was difficult to assess or deal with. From all indications, lessons have been learnt and his replacement would be malleable steel and suitable to fit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mould in every respect. (IPA Service)
