Amid a war of words between the Congress and BJP over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Narendra Modi government during his UK tour, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said that such “misplaced campaign to taint and tarnish our Parliament and constitutional entities” is “too serious and exceptional to be ignored” or countenanced. The BJP has, over the last few days, accused Rahul of “insulting” India’s democracy while abroad. In his address at an event to launch a book by former Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh on Thursday, Dhankhar said: “In democracy, there will always be issues…but we, who are at the apex levels of these institutions, can’t be complainants. We cannot hold grievances; we have to find resolutions.. We are the most functional democracy on the planet as on date.” Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Dhankhar said, “While the world is applauding our historic accomplishments as a functional, vibrant democracy, some amongst us, including Parliamentarians, are engaged in thoughtless, unfair denigration of our well-nurtured democratic values. How can we justify such wanton orchestration of a factually untenable narrative?” The Vice President said. “If I observe silence on this orchestration by an MP outside the country, which is ill-premised, unwholesome and motivated, it will be constitutional culpability and outrage of my oath of office.. How can I sanctify a statement that mics in Indian Parliament are put off? How can people say so?” Training his guns on the Congress party, he said, “We did have a dark chapter of our political history — proclamation of Emergency was the darkest period any democracy can suffer. Indian democratic polity is now mature. There can be no repeat of that (Emergency).”
