Opinion The outspoken Jagdeep Dhankhar must break silence on his resignation

The circumstances surrounding the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President of India, the second-highest constitutional office in the country, are fraught: It comes when there are two years still to go in his five-year tenure, and at the end of an eventful first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is likely to see the House take up an array of important issues, beginning with Operation Sindoor and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar that has run into controversy. The Monday night announcement of Dhankhar’s exit came virtually mid-sentence, with no evidence of consultation or discussion having preceded it — he had scheduled a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee for Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday a one-day official visit to Jaipur. The stated reason for the resignation is “to prioritise health care and abide by medical advice” — if true, that would leave no space for loose ends, only for a nation’s best wishes. But coming as abruptly as it does, and given the conspicuous silence of the government and ruling party — except for the Prime Minister’s strikingly terse tweet on someone he had earlier described effusively as “kisan putra” while announcing his candidature for V-P — the unavoidable impression is of a withholding.

That impression is distinctly at odds with Dhankhar’s own record and personality. The lawyer who began his political career with a Lok Sabha election from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan on a Janata Dal ticket in 1989, joined the BJP in 2003, was appointed governor of West Bengal in 2019 and rose to the position of Vice President in 2022 is known for an outspokenness that has, at times, pushed at constitutionally laid-out red lines. As West Bengal Governor, Dhankhar earned a reputation for conducting himself as a one-man Opposition to the Mamata Banerjee government. The Raj Bhawan’s run-ins with the elected chief minister were in-your-face and frequent, on issues ranging from law and order and post-poll violence to charges of corruption. As V-P, he has spoken his mind in ways that have regularly ranged him against the Opposition and also the Judiciary. He is the only V-P against whom the Opposition took the unprecedented step of bringing a no-confidence motion, accusing him of “partisan conduct” and of being a “spokesperson” for the government. He has made it a habit to take on the judiciary in ways that are seen to undermine the principle of separation of powers — be it his criticism of the SC ruling on the NJAC, his making a case for overriding the “basic structure” doctrine and advocacy of Parliament’s sovereignty, or most recently, in the context of cash being found at a judge’s residence, the Court’s alleged lack of accountability. On some of these issues, especially the black box that judicial accountability seems to be locked up in, he surely hit many a nail on its head.

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But even as Dhankhar has invited criticism for his interventions while occupying constitutional office, he eludes glib type-casting. Despite their many confrontations in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC supported his election as V-P by abstaining. After his resignation, prominent Opposition leaders have spoken of him respectfully and warmly. He owes it to the place he has created in a polarised polity, as a man unafraid to provoke, as someone who can spring a surprise, to dispel the opacity that surrounds his mid-term departure. For the dignity of his office and his own tradition of speaking up, Dhankhar should break the silence.