Judicial jibes, farmer barbs may have cost Jagdeep Dhankhar dear

New Delhi: Monday, July 21, marked the culmination of simmering differences between the Vice-President's office and the government, resulting in the resignation of India's 14th Vice-President, Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The NDA government had been firm on moving a notice of motion to remove Justice Yashwant Verma of the Allahabad HC. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju was spearheading efforts to secure MPs' signatures in the Lok Sabha, and even Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi signed the motion on Monday.

The motion, carrying signatures from both ruling and opposition MPs, was submitted in the Lok Sabha as the government prepared to move it in the Lower House. But later that evening, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar informed the Upper House that he had received a similar motion for Justice Verma's removal, this one with over 50 signatures from opposition members. The move caught the ruling side off guard.


What followed was hectic activity in Parliament. Top Union ministers Amit Shah, JP Nadda, S. Jaishankar, and Nirmala Sitharaman gathered in Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's chamber, while NDA MPs from the Rajya Sabha were summoned to sign key notices.

Meanwhile, Dhankhar convened a meeting of the RS Business Advisory Committee at 4:30 pm on Monday, but it was skipped by Leader of the House JP Nadda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.

The mention of the opposition-backed motion in the Upper House became the trigger for the fallout that ultimately led to Dhankhar's resignation.

However, this was not an isolated flashpoint. From his very first day in office, Dhankhar's aggressive stance toward the judiciary made the government increasingly uncomfortable, projecting an image of battle lines being drawn between the executive and the courts.

As recently as July 7, Dhankhar made sharp remarks against the judiciary, saying, "Pick-and-choose for post-retirement posts for judges seriously impairs our judiciary."

Proudly calling himself a farmer's son, Dhankhar often spoke out of turn on farmers' rights. At ICAR's centenary foundation in December, with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan present, he questioned why farmers were still protesting and said they hadn't received what was promised.

Caste pride, like farmer's pride, shaped Dhankhar's persona. At a Jat event he attended this year, a resolution sought a community member's appointment as Secretary.