Opposition, BJP spar over Dhankhar's judiciary tirade

NEW DELHI: A day after Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's strong words against the judiciary, opposition and BJP members sparred over his statements with Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal saying he had never seen an RS chairman make "political statements" of this nature and former RS MP and BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani backing the VP.

Sibal said the LS speaker and the RS chairman remained equidistant from the opposition and governing party, and could not be the "spokesperson of the party".

"Everyone knows that the LS speaker's chair is in between. He or she is the speaker of the House, not the speaker of one party. The same is with the upper House. You are equidistant between the opposition and the ruling party. No speaker can be the spokesperson of a party. I don't say that he (Dhankhar) is but no speaker in principle can be the spokesperson of any party. If it appears so, then the dignity of the chair is lowered," Sibal said at a press conference.

Jethmalani, a renowned lawyer, took to X and said the recent Supreme Court order prescribing a time limit for the President to dispose of bills reserved for her assent by governors was bound to "stir a hornet's nest". It took the "irrepressible" VP of India to take up cudgels, he added.

"While some may question the constitutional propriety of a symbolic second head of the state entering the arena of conflict between two limbs of govt, the pointing out of a patent constitutional flaw (VP is an accomplished jurist besides) that Article 145(3) of Constitution mandated that a question pertaining to interpretation of a constitutional provision be dealt with by a five-judge bench only and that the two-judge bench decision was a nullity would surely be in discharge of vice president's sworn obligation to uphold the Constitution," he said.

Congress's Randeep Singh Surjewala too expressed disagreement with Dhankhar. "The Supreme Court judgment putting constitutional fetters on the power of governors and the President is timely, accurate, courageous and corrects the notion that those holding high offices are above any fetters or imposition of checks and balances in exercise of their powers."