PM Modi dials VP Dhankar over mockery incident; Congress calls row a diversion tactic

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said he received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the mockery incident. A controversy erupted after TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee derisively mimicked Dhankhar during the opposition's protest against the suspension of MPs on Tuesday.

A post by the Vice President's office on X read: "Received a telephone call from the Prime Minister, Shri @narendramodi Ji. He expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday."

"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 and that too in Parliament was unfortunate," Dhankhar was quoted as saying on X.

Dhankhar told the prime minister that such incidents will not deter him from doing his duty. "I told him- Mr. Prime Minister, the antics of a few won't prevent me from performing my duty and upholding the principles enshrined in our Constitution. I am committed to those values from the bottom of my heart. None of the insults will make me change my path," the post read.

This comes as a case was filed against Banerjee for his mimicry of Dhankar. "A complaint was given by advocate Abhishek Gautam at Defence Colony Police station on Tuesday evening. We have forwarded it to the New Delhi district police," a police officer told PTI.

Gautam in his complaint said the video was made with an "intention to insult and defame the Vice-President of India, his caste as well as his background of farmer and as a lawyer". He demanded that an FIR be registered under the appropriate sections of IPC and the IT Act against the TMC MP and others seen in the video.

The incident happened on Tuesday evening on the stairs of Parliament on Tuesday. Banerjee was seen mimicking Dhankhar's mannerisms by leaning forward, a reference to having a spine, to mock his alleged partisanship. The MP was cheered by his colleagues and Congress Rahul Gandhi was seen making a video of the performance. 

Though the Congress was attacked by the BJP for the incident, it hit back stating the BJP was making a "desperate attempt" to divert attention from the suspension of over 140 MPs. 

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "A desperate attempt is being made to divert attention away from the unprecedented suspension of 142 MPs by raising the issue of 'mimicry'.

"Remember who mimicked whom and that too in the Lok Sabha?" Ramesh said and shared a video clip of Prime Minister Modi's speech in Lok Sabha after Rahul Gandhi had hugged him in 2018.