Appointed officers in House panels after members approached me: Dhankhar

Explaining the rationale behind the move, which Opposition leaders have called “illegal” and an instance of “institutional subversion”, Dhankhar said, “Every (Parliamentary) committee is serviced by staff of five or six people. I got inputs from a number of chairpersons and members to do something affirmatively so that we can improve our productivity.”

Congress’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh, who had on Wednesday said there “has been no consultation whatsoever”, on Thursday reiterated his stance following Dhankhar’s remarks. Ramesh, who is also chairman of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, tweeted, “The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha has said that his controversial move to have his staff attached to various Committees was after consultations with the respective Chairpersons. I chair a Standing Committee and I can categorically say I wasn’t consulted at all.”

Speaking at the launch of author-politician and former Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh’s book, ‘Mundaka Upanishad: The Bridge to Immortality’, Dhankhar said: “I sharpen the human resource attached to the committees, by putting research-oriented, knowledgeable people, so that they can help the committee members optimise their output. In the process, I appointed an IAS officer, an IFS officer… (But) a narrative is set afloat…that (the Rajya Sabha) chairman has appointed his own members to the committee,” he said.

“A democrat is made out to be a despot,” Dhankhar said,

The Vice President said he is “terribly upset and concerned” over a “narrative based on falsehood” and added that he has directed his office to get in touch with newspaper editors and channel heads.

“I want the media to be fair… Please don’t be so unfair that you set afloat untruths to run down a Constitutional authority,” he said.

Eight of Dhankhar’s personal staff members have been attached to 12 Parliamentary standing committees and eight departmental standing committees, as per an order from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday, which said this has been done with immediate effect.

The officers attached to the committees from the Vice President’s staff are Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Rajesh N Naik, Private Secretary (PS) Sujeet Kumar, Additional PS Sanjay Verma, and OSD Abhyuday Singh Shekhawat. From the Rajya Sabha Chairman’s office, the appointees are his OSDs Akhil Choudhary, Dinesh D, Kaustubh Sudhakar Bhalekar, and PS Aditi Chaudhary.

Among Opposition leaders who criticised the move on Wednesday, Congress’s Rajya Sabha chief whip Jairam Ramesh questioned the “logic or necessity” behind the move, while former Rajya Sabha MP and CPI general secretary D Raja said it was “violative of established Parliamentary procedures”.