Former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar recently applied to the Rajasthan Assembly Secretariat for restoration of his pension as a former state MLA. He would receive this pension from the date that his resignation as the Vice-President was accepted.
In a sudden move on July 21, the opening day of Parliament’s Monsoon Session, Dhankhar, 74, resigned from his post – two years before the end of his term – citing health concerns.
During his tenure as the V-P, Dhankhar was known to be outspoken on various issues, including taking on the judiciary over separation of powers. His innings as the Rajya Sabha Chairman remained turbulent, as he had frequent runs-ins with the Congress-led Opposition, which also, in an unprecedented bid, brought a notice for his removal for his “partisan” conduct in favour of the BJP-led government. The notice was rejected by Deputy Chairman Harivansh.
Three decades ago, during his role as the Congress MLA from Ajmer’s Kishangarh in Rajasthan, Dhankhar also used to speak his mind, when his target was the then BJP government led by Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
Among the highlights of his stint as an MLA from 1993 to 1998 was his speech in the Assembly during a debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address in January 1994 — barely two months after the BJP won the November 1993 Assembly polls under Shekhawat’s leadership.
Participating in this discussion, Dhankhar criticised the BJP and the RSS. Referring to the BJP’s Bani Park MLA Rajpal Shekhawat’s comments, Dhankhar said that Rajpal called the Assembly elections in four states, including Rajasthan, in the 1993 “mini general election” where people rejected the imposition of the President’s rule and elected governments.
“Consider it a mini general election, but what was its result?” Dhankhar asked. “The restlessness against President’s rule is natural because it is not an ordinary shock. There were four (BJP) CMs out of which three had clear policies. All three were associated with RSS and were of a certain political ideology… (In the 1993 poll results) they were made to sit at home. In this mini general election, a political sentiment has risen and that is that the fanaticism of the RSS will not prevail,” he alleged.
The President’s rule was imposed in four BJP-ruled states – Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh – after the then P V Narasimha Rao-led Congress government at the Centre dismissed them in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The CMs of UP, MP and Himachal Pradesh were then, respectively, Kalyan Singh, Sunderlal Patwa and Shanta Kumar, who had been closely associated with the RSS.
In the 1993 elections, the BJP could return to power only in Rajasthan as Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi Party clinched the UP polls and the Congress won in MP and Himachal Pradesh.
During his speech in the Assembly, Dhankhar also lauded the Places of Worship Act, 1991, saying that by bringing this law, Prime Minister Rao “wanted to delink religion and politics, that there should be no interference by religion in politics. Your party (BJP) did not allow it but in this mini general election, the Indian citizens delinked religion from politics”.
The Places of Worship Act, 1991, prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, barring the Ayodhya dispute which was then sub-judice.
In a reference to CM Shekhawat, Dhankhar said that if he was not in that position in the BJP government, “more people from the RSS would have become ministers and fundamentalism in politics would have increased”.
“Are there any elections in the RSS? Chairman sir, can a system or institution be democratic in which there are no elections? Is there any place for such an institution in parliamentary democracy? You and I together should thank the people of India that they gave a befitting reply to the RSS in these elections,” Dhankhar said.
He also accused the Shekhawat government of indulging in “divisiveness” through the Governor’s address, alleging that “The government has tried to divide the society on the basis of the Governor’s speech. An attempt has been made to divide the society on the basis of narrow and sectarian considerations.”
Quoting Governor’s speech, Dhankhar said it had mentioned that out of 57 reserved constituencies, 33 MLAs were elected from the BJP. “Sir, is this worthy of being included in the Governor’s address? Should it be interpreted that if you do not have even a single minority member on your side, the minority will consider you as their enemy? Such a thing should not come up. They have hurt the post of the Governor so much and the Governor, bound by the Constitution, read it…You tried to divide the society on the basis of sectarian considerations in the elections, you failed in that, so you are trying to do it here.”
When a member pointed out the Congress’s poor performance in UP, Dhankhar said, “The condition of UP is such that you (the BJP) have only one seat left near Ayodhya and the public has seated Mulayam Singh in place of Kalyan Singh.”
With the debate taking place just over one year after the Babri Masjid demolition, Dhankhar said: “The BJP has played its best political game, its best playing cards. You couldn’t have done anything more than that. But its results are before you. You are the only state where there is a BJP government.”
Contesting in the 1993 Assembly polls from the Kishangarh constituency, Dhankhar had defeated the BJP’s Jagjeet Singh by 1,958 votes (2.12% margin).
Dhankhar was combative on other issues too, using the rules of the House’s procedure extensively. He raised various public interest issues – especially related to health, water and education – concerning his constituency and Ajmer district as well as his native turf Jhunjhunu. A lawyer by training, he impressed with his knowledge of the law in his speech.
Dhankhar also participated in various debates in the Assembly. While having cordial relations with CM Shekhawat, he often had a confrontation with the latter in the House. In April 1994, he even sought to move a breach of privilege motion against Shekhawat. As per Rajasthan Assembly rules, a member may raise a question involving a breach of privilege either of a member or the House or a committee. However, the Speaker expunged Dhankhar’s remarks, who clashed with him and some Treasury bench members including the government’s chief whip Mahaveer Prasad Jain.
In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Dhankhar had contested from Jhunjhunu on a Janata Dal ticket and won against the Congress’s Ayub Khan with a 22.56% vote margin. He also served as the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs. He joined the Congress ahead of the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, which he contested on its ticket from Ajmer but lost to the BJP’s Rasa Singh Rawat.
Dhankhar joined the BJP in 2003, becoming the national convener of its law and legal affairs department in 2016. In July 2019, the Narendra Modi government appointed him as the West Bengal Governor.