Should I say I’m not being allowed to speak in House because I’m a Dalit: Kharge on Dhankhar mimicry row

Speaking to reporters, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said caste should not be dragged into every issue.

New Delhi | Updated: December 20, 2023 06:37 PM IST

3 min read

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders during a protest over the suspension of MPs amid the Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)

Amid a row over the mimicry of Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Wednesday said caste should not be dragged into every issue and questioned if he should rake up his Dalit origins every time he is not allowed to speak in Rajya Sabha.

The political row broke out on Tuesday after a video clip went viral, wherein Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee, surrounded by other Opposition leaders, was seen ostensibly impersonating the Rajya Sabha Chairperson and saying: “My spine is so straight, I’m so tall.” The video also featured Rahul Gandhi appearing to record the TMC MP.

Dhankhar has flayed the mimicry, terming it “shameful, ridiculous and unacceptable” and an insult to his background as a farmer and ‘Jat’ (his caste).

Speaking to reporters, Kharge said the Chairperson’s job is to provide protection to other members but he himself is making such a statement.

“I am also not allowed to speak in the House, so should I also say that I am not being allowed to speak because I am a Dalit,” he said and added that “one should not provoke people outside by talking about casteism inside the House.”

Meanwhile, Dhankhar Wednesday said he will not tolerate any insult to Parliament and the post of vice president, while expressing deep anguish over TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking him.

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Rahul Gandhi, on his part, has rejected the claims that he shared the mimicry clip of Dhankhar, stating that the video which he took “remains on his phone”. Questioning “who disrespected and how,” Gandhi said, “MPs were sitting there, I took their video which remains on my phone. The media continues to show it and is making remarks, Modi ji is making remarks, nobody has said anything.”

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury termed it as a “very sad day for the country when people holding constitutional positions talk about their castes.” The government is trying to wash its hands of the issue of Parliament’s security breach by taking up such an issue, he was quoted as saying by PTI.

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Should everyone now move around wearing a label declaring their caste, he asked.

The ruling BJP has, meanwhile, condemned the action. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a call with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, expressed great pain at the “abject theatrics” of some of the MPs, President Murmu said she was dismayed to see the manner in which our respected Vice President was humiliated.

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