New Delhi: “Mimicry is a type of art,” Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said in response to the continuing political furore over his aping of Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar in Parliament premises Tuesday.
The Lok Sabha MP, who is among the 141 Opposition parliamentarians suspended by the government on the security breach issue, said Wednesday that his impersonation was during a “mock Parliament” session outside the House.
“I did not take anyone’s name. If he (Dhankhar) thinks it is him, then I am helpless! Does he really behave like that?” Banerjee asked reporters, adding that as a member of the lower house, he had not watched Rajya Sabha proceedings, not even on television.
“I am not aware of how the Honourable Rajya Sabha chairman speaks in the House,” Banerjee said, also stressing that he had no intention to hurt anyone.
“Dhankar Saab and I are in the same profession. He is a senior advocate. We advocates don’t hurt anyone. If he is hurt… then… But I really don’t know why he thinks it is him,” the MP said, reiterating his “respect” for the Vice President, who was previously the Bengal Governor.
VIDEO | “I am a Member of the Lok Sabha, and I haven’t watched any Rajya Sabha proceedings. I wasn’t aware of the way honorable Chairperson speaks in the Rajya Sabha. I never named anyone in my act at the ‘Mock Parliament’, if he has taken up on him, I am really helpless. I have… pic.twitter.com/REkty78QeF
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 20, 2023
“I did not want to hurt anyone, but mimicry is an art. The honourable Prime Minister has done it too… in his first term in the Lok Sabha itself. I can show you videos. But no one took it seriously,” Banerjee told the media Wednesday.
Amid this, in a show of solidarity towards Dhankhar, Rajya Sabha MPs belonging to the BJP remained standing in the House for an hour.
‘Dismayed,’ says President Murmu
President Droupadi Murmu took to social media platform X Wednesday to say she was “dismayed” to see the manner in which Dhankhar “was humiliated in the Parliament complex”.
“Elected representatives must be free to express themselves, but their expression should be within the norms of dignity and courtesy. That has been the Parliamentary tradition we are proud of, and the People of India expect them to uphold it,” the President said.
Dhankhar thanked Murmu, saying her words were a “timely reminder that basic courtesies must always remain”. “I am committed to upholding Constitutional principles till my last breath. No insults can prevent me from doing so,” he said.
Dhankhar also shared on his X timeline that Prime Minister Modi had called him and “expressed great pain over the abject theatrics” of MPs.
“He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for twenty years and counting but the fact that it could happen to a Constitutional office like the Vice President of India and that too in the Parliament was unfortunate,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, an advocate in Delhi has filed a complaint against Kalyan Banerjee for his caricature of Jagdeep Dhankhar during the Opposition’s protest Tuesday on the stairs of Parliament.
Rahul Gandhi was also seen making a video of Banerjee’s performance.
The advocate, Abhishek Gautam, wrote in his complaint that the video was made with an “intention to insult and defame the Vice-President of India, his caste as well as his background as a farmer and as a lawyer”.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha BJP MPs stood for almost an hour in the chamber on Wednesday to show solidarity with Dhankar.
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