In a first, parties of the INDIA opposition bloc on Tuesday submitted a notice to bring a motion in Rajya Sabha for the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, accusing him of “partisan” conduct as the chairman of the Upper House.
If the motion is moved, these parties need a simple majority to get it passed, but they do not have the requisite numbers in the 243-member House. Opposition members, however, insisted that it was a “strong message to fight for parliamentary democracy”.
On behalf of the opposition, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Naseer Hussain submitted the notice signed by 60 opposition MPs– including Congress, RJD, TMC, CPI, CPI-M, JMM, AAP, DMK, Samajwadi Party– to Rajya Sabha secretary general P C Mody.
This is the first time that a notice for bringing a motion to remove the Vice President has been moved in the Rajya Sabha. A 14-day notice has to be given and it should be approved by the Deputy Chairman before the motion is taken up.
Notably, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the floor leaders of various opposition parties are not among the signatories to the notice, the sources said.
Similar notices for removal of the Speaker of Lok Sabha have been submitted in the past, but none against the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman. Three motions have come in the past against Lok Sabha Speakers – against G V Mavalankar on December 18, 1954, against Hukam Singh on November 24, 1966 and against Balram Jakhar on April 15, 1987.
While the motions against Mavalankar and Jahar were negatived, that against Hukam Singh was rejected as less than 50 members rose in the chair to take up the motion. The present move, spearheaded by the Congress, comes in the wake of verbal clashes between opposition parties and the Rajya Sabha chairman.
The opposition has been upset with Dhankhar over multiple issues. The latest trigger was allowing BJP members to raise the allegations of links between Congress leaders and organisations backed by billionaire investor George Soros which the ruling party claims are involved in “anti-India activities”.
“All parties belonging to the INDIA group have had no option but to formally submit a no-confidence motion against the learned Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for the extremely partisan manner in which he has been conducting the proceedings of the Council of States,” Congress general secretary (i/c Communications) Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X. He said the way the chairman has run Rajya Sabha “unfortunately gives us the impression that he is biased”.
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.”