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The Congress claimed that Jagdeep Dhankhar put in his papers as he was upset over JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju’s absence at a BAC meeting
Former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar (PTI File Image)
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sudden resignation on Monday evening has triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP, with the former linking the move to the absence of ministers JP Nadda and Kiren Rijiju at a key Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.
The Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha plays a crucial role in recommending the allocation of time for government legislative and other business. The first BAC meeting was held on Monday at 12.30pm which was attended by both Rijiju and Nadda. However, when the committee reconvened at 4.30pm, the leaders were absent, and Union minister L Murugan represented the government instead.
Drawing a link between the two incidents, the Congress claimed that Dhankhar put in his papers as he was upset over Nadda and Rijiju’s absence.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X to share the chronology of events before Dhankhar’s resignation, claiming that “something very serious happened yesterday between 1 PM and 4:30 PM to account for the deliberate absence of Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju from the second BAC yesterday”.
“At 4:30 PM, the BAC reassembled under the chairmanship of Shri Jagdeep Dhankar. It waited for Shri Nadda and Shri Rijiju to arrive. They never came. Shri Jagdeep Dhankar was not personally informed that the two senior Ministers were not attending. Rightly he took umbrage and rescheduled the BAC for today at 1 PM,” he said on X.
Ramesh added: “Now in a truly unprecedented move, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar has resigned. He has given health reasons for doing so. Those should be respected. But it is also a fact that there are far deeper reasons for his resignation. While always lauding post-2014 India, he spoke fearlessly for the welfare of farmers, forcefully against what he called ‘ahankar’ in public life, and strongly on judicial accountability and restraint. To the extent possible under the current G2 ruling regime, he tried to accommodate the Opposition. He was a stickler for norms, proprieties, and protocol, which he believed were being consistently disregarded in both his capacities.”
However, sources told CNN-News18 that no confirmation was given by the government about the meeting on Monday and the unavailability of the ministers due to other urgent meetings was conveyed to the Vice-President’s office.
The government sources also accused the Opposition of playing politics, calling it “most unfortunate”.
Nadda himself sought to clear the air as he spoke to reporters. “The Vice President’s office was intimated about our inability to attend the meeting,” he said, rubbishing Ramesh’s claims.
Dhankhar, 74, took office in August 2022 with a term scheduled to run until 2027. His tenure as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha was marked by frequent clashes with the Opposition, culminating in an unprecedented motion for his removal—the first of its kind against a sitting Vice President in independent India.
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