Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday clarified that no disrespect had been shown to President Droupadi Murmu, whose absence from the inauguration of the new Parliament building was highlighted by Congress MPs over the past two days, saying she was not supposed to be present at the event as per the Constitution. “Please recall the first amendment of the Constitution. There was provision put in by the framers of the Constitution that the President will address every session of the House. The amendment was done to make it once a year. The President has to act in accordance with the Constitution,” he said. Dhankhar was responding to remarks made by Congress leader K C Venugopal in Rajya Sabha during the debate over Women’s Reservation Bill. On Wednesday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. “When this new Parliament building was being inaugurated, we all expected that the President and the Vice President would be there. It is an insult to us that our chairman was not there, our President was not there,” Venugopal said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. At this, Dhankhar stopped Venugopal’s speech and said, “We can’t trade on deficiencies. We can't trade ignorance of others. Let me make it clear that the Vice President and the President have been accorded the highest respect in the country. There has been no Constitutional transgression.” He said, “The position of the President or the Vice President has to be kept at the level as expected. And that was done.You must do your homework. Read the Constitution, the role has been defined categorically. I can assure you that your Chairman will not allow anyone to denude his power. Get over this perception.” To this, Venugopal replied, “I respect your position. All I was saying was that people expected the President and the V-P to be there.”
