India upper house deputy chair rejects opposition move to impeach VP Dhankar

Published December 19, 2024 Updated December 19, 2024 10:32pm

A move by Indian opposition parties to impeach Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar for allegedly performing his job in a partisan manner was rejected, parliament said on Thursday.

The vice president, India’s second highest constitutional office, acts as the chair of the upper house of parliament, known as the Rajya Sabha, and opposition parties have accused Dhankhar of being partisan in his role.

Sansad Television, the parliament’s TV channel, said in a post on X that the opposition’s notice has been dismissed.

Harivansh Narayan Singh, deputy chairman of parliament’s upper house, said the notice to impeach Dhankhar was “severely flawed” and aimed at demeaning the constitutional office of vice president.

India’s vice president also acts as the country’s president if there is a temporary vacancy.

The winter session of parliament has been disrupted several times with government and opposition parties accusing each other of not allowing legislative business by creating political controversies.

Bribery allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani, religious conflict in a northern town and ethnic violence in the northeastern state of Manipur are some of the issues that have jolted the proceedings of the legislature in this session, which began on November 25 and was scheduled to break on Friday.

Although the opposition was unlikely to garner enough votes to remove Dhankhar, the move was expected to worsen the fraught relations between the opposition and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, as Dhankhar was elected as a candidate of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Jairam Ramesh, spokesman of the main opposition Congress party, said last week that the opposition had “no option but to formally submit a no-confidence motion” against Dhankhar for the “extremely partisan manner” in conducting the proceedings of the house.

The BJP and main opposition Congress party did not immediately issue any statement on the matter.

Opinion

Editorial

Tax amendments
Updated 20 Dec, 2024

Tax amendments

Bureaucracy gimmicks have not produced results, will not do so in the future.
Cricket breakthrough
20 Dec, 2024

Cricket breakthrough

IT had been made clear to Pakistan that a Champions Trophy without India was not even a distant possibility, even if...
Troubled waters
20 Dec, 2024

Troubled waters

LURCHING from one crisis to the next, the Pakistani state has been consistent in failing its vulnerable citizens....
Madressah oversight
Updated 19 Dec, 2024

Madressah oversight

Bill should be reconsidered and Directorate General of Religious Education, formed to oversee seminaries, should not be rolled back.
Kurram’s misery
Updated 19 Dec, 2024

Kurram’s misery

The state must recognise that allowing such hardship to continue undermines its basic duty to protect citizens’ well-being.
Hiking gas rates
19 Dec, 2024

Hiking gas rates

IMPLEMENTATION of a new Ogra recommendation to increase the gas prices by an average 8.7pc or Rs142.45 per mmBtu in...