Here's what Jagdeep Dhankhar will bring to the table if elected as VP

The election of Jagdeep Dhankhar as vice-president is hardly a challenge but as VP and, therefore, chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he will inherit a troubled legacy

Arun Jaitley, who was Union finance minister, would have been a happy man today. Jagdeep Dhankhar (71), who was his pick for governor of West Bengal, is almost certain to be elected vice-president of India on August 5. The two were in jobs that approximated each other in 1989-90: Jaitley as additional solicitor general and Dhankhar as a Supreme Court lawyer as well as Lok Sabha MP, representing Jhunjhunu from 1989 to 1991. They became friends.

In Rajasthan, he is better known as a criminal lawyer: He started practice in the Rajasthan High Court and became the youngest president of the Rajasthan High Court Bar Association. When the Jat agitation was on in the state, he was the one who intervened to fight the scores of legal cases against the Jats by the governments in Haryana and Rajasthan. He was one of Salman Khan’s lawyers in the blackbuck hunting case in Jodhpur.

The electoral college that will elect the vice-president (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs, including the nominated ones) is heavily weighted in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), whose candidate Dhankhar is, because of the coalition’s huge presence in the Lok Sabha. The election is hardly a challenge. But not so, what comes after.

What is Dhankhar bringing to the table? A deep commitment to public service: He has been in many parties. He was in the Congress (MLA from Kishangarh, Rajasthan, from 1993 to 1998) and Janata Dal (he got his MPship in 1989 because of the strong recommendation from Devi Lal, the most prominent Jat leader then and Haryana chief minister to boot); and also minister for parliamentary affairs during the short-lived Chandrashekhar government (1990-91). Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, one of his mentors in the BJP, was vice-president.  

His brother Randeep is an advisor to the Congress government in Rajasthan now.

He does not have an RSS/BJP background. His affiliation with the organisation came with his support (from behind the scenes) for controversial former RSS activist Swami Aseemanand, who was accused in the conspiracy that led to a bomb blast in the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in 2007 but was later acquitted. A few members of the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were accused in this case and at least two were convicted and awarded life imprisonment in 2017. Dhankhar helped Union minister Bhupender Yadav fight the case. Though he stayed in the background, insiders in the RSS-BJP, including Indresh Kumar, who was also acquitted, know about his contribution.

So there is no doubt about his commitment to the BJP and parliamentary ideals. But as vice-president and, therefore, chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he will inherit a troubled legacy. Although the government faces no real numerical challenges in the Upper House, political and legal challenges are there aplenty.

Dhankhar’s run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) are scarcely a secret. Initially, Dhankhar used every opportunity he got to roil the waters for the TMC government. And to be fair, the TMC too lost no opportunity to irritate the governor -- which political party, for instance, has protested at Raj Bhavan with processions of sheep and goats? But when the TMC returned to power in 2021, Dhankhar appeared to have made his peace with the government.

Not so the TMC, which has lost no opportunity to rile him. Now the same governor is moving to a House where the TMC has a significant presence. In November last year, the TMC did not let the Rajya Sabha function when many of its MPs were suspended for entering the well, shouting slogans and holding placards. Now, again, seven of its MPs were suspended for all of last week. As Congress leader Jairam Ramesh points out, there is a 170 per cent increase in the suspension of MPs under the NDA dispensation as compared to the previous one.

If the TMC thought the previous chairman/deputy chairman had been unfair, it will likely be even more assertive with this chairman, as he carries over past slights and issues from Kolkata to New Delhi.

That’s not the only problem. Interpretation of rules is also an issue. Rule 267 has been designed to let the presiding officer decide if an issue is urgent enough to supersede all other matters -- and, if so, put aside everything else to enable a discussion. Rule 267 has been invoked many times in the past to discuss demonetisation (November 2016), the writing down of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and the agrarian crisis (April 2015). For days, the Opposition has been asking the government under Rule 267 to hold a discussion on price and rise and goods and services tax. The government has said it has no problem in holding a discussion, but will do so at a time suitable to it, because Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who could play the most prominent part here, is down with Covid. The tension is obvious. The presiding officer is required to give a ruling.

The outgoing chairman had constituted a committee to review procedures and processes in the Rajya Sabha, especially relating to the conduct of the members. The new chairman will have to take a view on it.

It is with Jagdeep Dhankhar as chairman that the Rajya Sabha will shift to the new Parliament building. The premises might change: But the people will be the same.