Opposition claims deeper reasons for Dhankar’s exit

Many Opposition leaders on Tuesday questioned the abrupt resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and some claimed there may have been “deeper reasons” for it although the official reason stated is health issues. With Dhankar, so far not speaking anything beyond what he had spelt out in his resignation letter, the Opposition campers are finding no easy way out to open a front in Parliament on the issue but many of them have demanded a clarification from the government or draw insinuations before the media.

Responding to media queries, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said: “Only he (Dhankar) knows the reason. We have nothing to say on this. Either the government knows or he knows. It is up to the government to accept his resignation or not”.

His colleague Jairam Ramesh pointed out how leader of the Rajya Sabha JP Nadda and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju did not turn up for a scheduled meeting of the BAC that Dhankar had convened on Monday.
“Jagdeep Dhankar was not personally informed that the two senior ministers were not attending. Rightly, he took umbrage and rescheduled the BAC for today (Tuesday) at 1 pm. So, something very serious happened yesterday between 1 pm and 4:30 pm to account for the deliberate absence of Nadda and Rijiju from the second BAC meeting yesterday. Now, in a truly unprecedented move, 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,” Ramesh said.

Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena (UBT) claimed a big churn is on the cards: “Big politics is going on behind the scenes, and it will be revealed soon. The resignation of the Vice President is not an ordinary event. I am not ready to believe that it is due to his health.” I was observing him yesterday (Monday). He is fine… Something will definitely happen in September”.