Former VP’s silence has contributed to call sorts of speculation
By Sushil Kutty
So where’s former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar? One would have thought he would be easy to meet, come across, now that he is a free-bird and not the Vice President, a thankless job, if any, Dhankhar would have himself submitted to the people. But Jagdeep Dhankhar doesn’t happen to be free-bird, more like a caged one.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was asked Dhankhar’s whereabouts by a news agency and the man who should know everything about ‘home’, said there were medical and health reasons which made Jagdeep Dhankhar vulnerable.
Fair enough, but it still didn’t answer the question, where’s Jagdeep Dhankhar? Everybody is asking and the query has gained urgency. Opposition politicians are worried sick. The media are tying themselves in knots. This was one big puzzle. The media’s helplessness was disgusting, they seemed to have forgotten the modus operandi of their trade, go ask questions, probe and investigate.
So, the speculation grows and not just over his “disappearance”, but over his “resignation”. Did Jagdeep Dhankhar resign, or was he shown the door in the kindest of manner, like holding open the door for a lady of high note by a gentleman of the highest order? In other words was pressure mounted on him?
There’s also the awful talk that Dhankhar is under “house arrest”, something nobody would wish on anybody. But opposition politicians and failed skeptical journalists aren’t beyond imagining cesspools and open septic tanks in Eldorado! Questions abound of Dhankhar being held incommunicado, but where?
Where is Dhankhar spending his “post-resignation” days, where is his house? Vice Presidents, when they call it a day, usually move to an alternative accommodation allotted to them and easy to locate. But which alternative accommodation did Jagdeep Dhankhar move into or was moved into, the mystery is only getting further buried in the mists of time.
Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned on July 21, the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The next day, the Union Home Ministry issued a statement. The Vice President made an unscheduled visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu. But, say opposition parties and very concerned journalists, where’s the proof he resigned and did he at all go to Rashtrapati Bhavan?
Amit Shah on Monday said Dhankhar resigned due to medical issues and dismissed claims of “house arrest”, stating that “Dhankhar sahab’s resignation letter is clear in itself. He has cited health reasons for his resignation. He has also expressed heartfelt gratitude towards the Prime Minister and other ministers and government members for his good tenure.”
As for “house arrest”, Shah said “interpretation of truth and lies” cannot just be found in opposition statements. “It seems like your interpretation of truth and lies is based on what the opposition has to say. We shouldn’t make a fuss out of all this. Dhankhar held a constitutional post and discharged his duties as per the constitution. He resigned due to personal health reasons. One should not deliberate much on the issue.”
If there was a warning and a cautionary tale in the words, it was left to the imagination. Where are you “Mr Former Vice President, people are worried stiff?” There’s talk after Dhankhar’s “sudden resignation” that he “has been “silenced”. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called it “resignation accompanied by silencing”.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of taking the country back to the “medieval age when the king could just remove anybody at will.
“Also, let’s not forget why we are electing a new Vice President. Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with somebody, and I said, you know, where is the old vice president gone? He’s gone,” Rahul Gandhi said on August 20.
Legal-eagle Kapil Sibal wondered whether a habeas corpus should be lodged about Dhankhar’s absence from public view, such a towering personality and vanished as if a whiff of smoke? Dhankhar resigned on July 21 but on July 10, Dhankhar spoke “barring divine intervention, I’ll be ending my tenure in 2027.” Then, what happened in the interregnum, why abruptly quit on July 21 after a day pregnant with happenings?
The BJP insists Dhankhar quit as he wanted “to prioritise health care and abide by medical advice.” Being the Vice President, he was the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and reports said he submitted his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu but a clique of journalists are questioning this “story”. An RTI reply says the President’s Office has said it doesn’t have any information!
So, the hapless journalists are questioning the disappearance of Jagdeep Dhankhar and instead of doing what they do best, which is unearth information from the deepest ocean and the highest peak, are acting helpless and worthless, totally at sea! On Sunday, five “top journalists” sat around a table and spread their hands in all directions except point a finger at the truth. No, they have idea where Jagdeep Dhankhar could be?
Simply put, the top journalists wagged their fingers, wagged their tongues and wagged their wasted careers. None of them, except one, had anything to contribute. And the “except one” said he had an “unbelievable story” nobody would believe! One of the journalists was “the youngest”, another was “most experienced” and a third one “ran a digital news out”.
Together, the five “senior journalists” with teams of journalists to command and all the resources at their command and 250 years’ journalistic experience behind them, had nothing to show for the time spent in unearthing stories! So, the question remains unanswered, “Where’s Jagdeep Dhankhar vanished, disappeared?” (IPA Service)
