DEFENDING HIS comments on Congress leader and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s remarks on “an attempt to delegitimise the judiciary”, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said on Friday that his “office cannot be allowed to be dragged on partisan stance”. “Search your heart, the damning consequence of it. An impression is sought to be imparted that this Chair will become party to a pernicious, sinister design at the instance of the government to delegitimize judiciary. Delegitimising judiciary means death-knell of democracy,” Dhankar said in Rajya Sabha. “I have appealed with sobriety across the political spectrum to all the leaders, believing in their sagacity and wisdom, that they must keep high constitutional offices away from their political stances,” he said, adding that he “expected wisdom of the House to be affirmatively supportive” of him. “I cannot be enlisted, I assure the Leader of the Opposition. I cannot be enlisted either by them or by you to delegitimise judiciary. I suffered the allegation that I was a part of a system to delegitimise judiciary, which means, sounding a death knell of democracy,” he said. “I will be abdicating my oath, I will be getting away from my constitutional obligations, if I do not react,” he added. This came after senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari raised a point of order on the issue, and his senior colleague and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said, “If a Lok Sabha Member (Sonia) talks outside, it should not be discussed in Rajya Sabha. If the Chair comments, it is unfortunate. This has never happened.” On December 20, Sonia Gandhi, while addressing Congress MPs, targeted the government for entering into a confrontation with the Supreme Court and alleged that a “calculated attempt” was “underway to delegitimise the judiciary”. Adjourning the Upper House sine die, Dhankar appealed to members that disruption is “antithetical to grace, decorum and sublimity” of Parliament. “This theatre of democracy is under the gaze of over a billion people in the country as also those beyond. They all cherish and hope and expect that we will work towards realising their aspirations and fructify their dreams,” he said.
