Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar. File | Photo Credit: ANI/Sansad TV

Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc have decided to move a notice to remove Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Jagdeep Dhankhar from his office.

The notice will be submitted under Article 67(b) of the Constitution and sources indicated that more than 50 MPs, including members from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party and the Left parties, have agreed to sign the notice.

Though the Opposition has been mulling such a move for the last several months, the immediate provocation was the decision by the Chair to disallow Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge to speak soon after Leader of the House J.P. Nadda spoke accusing the Congress of destabilising the country with the help of U.S. billionaire George Soros.

Parliament proceedings | September 21, 2020

In the 245-member Upper House, the NDA has about 108 members and the INDIA bloc has about 82 members. Parties such as the AIADMK, YSRCP and the Biju Janata Dal often support the government on critical issues.

The constitutional provision provides for the removal of the Vice-President, also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, from his office “by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People; but no resolution for the purpose of this clause shall be moved unless at least 14 days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.”

Sources in the Opposition told The Hindu that the conduct of Mr. Dhankhar on Monday led to taking such an extraordinary step by the Opposition. In the House, senior Opposition members, including Mr. Kharge, criticised the Chair’s decision to allow the BJP members speak on the Soros issue, even though Mr. Dhankhar rejected an adjournment motion moved by the BJP members on the matter. The Opposition members argued that adjournment motion, under Rule 267, is an option available with the Opposition and there is no precedence that the treasury benches were using it.

‘Biased Chairman’

Talking to reporters outside the House, senior Congress MP Digvijaya Singh said he had not seen such a biased Chairman in his legislative career since 1977. “I have been in government, in Opposition, as an MLA and also as an MP from 1977, but, in my entire political career, I have never seen such a biased Chairman... He doesn’t let us speak but makes everyone [from the treasury benches] speak, one by one,” Mr. Singh said.

Mr. Dhankhar had allowed Mr. Nadda to speak, who said a Congress leader is the co-president of the Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific (FDL-AP), a forum funded by Mr. Soros. In a statement made in the House, Mr. Dhankhar urged the MPs to share the sentiments of the people. “We as a nation are committed to fight these sinister forces, these forces that are inimical to India. This inimical force mechanism, a deep state that is evolving, is required to be neutralised by all of us,” he said.