The face-off between BJP and opposition parties over the mimicry of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar by a Trinamool MP, has snowballed into a major controversy with BJP leaders and workers staging protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Thursday. Jat community leaders have demanded apology from TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have condemned the mimicry incident describing it as an insult to the Vice President. In Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed his anguish and said it was “an insult to the dignity of the post of Vice President, the farmers and his Jat community”. Dhankhar said, “I do not care if somebody insults me personally, I will bear it, I will swallow it, but I will never tolerate if I am unable to protect the dignity of the post that I hold.”
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee refused to comment on the mimicry incident, but tried shifting the blame to Rahul Gandhi. She said, “we have respect for everyone. This has to be taken casually. ..You would not have come to know about this if Rahul Ji had not taken the video of the incident”. Rahul Gandhi reacted by blaming the media for hyping the mimicry act. He said, “MPs were sitting there, I shot the video. My video is on my phone. Media is playing it up. Nobody says anything when our 150 MPs are thrown out, but there is no discussion over that in media. There is no discussion on Adani, on Rafale deal, on unemployment. Our MPs are unhappy and sitting outside, but media is discussing this (mimicry).” It appears as if Rahul Gandhi has made it his habit to blame the media for his own mistakes. How can he say that there has not been any discussion on suspension of opposition MPs in media? There were so many discussions. Did not media show Rahul’s allegations about Rafale deal and against Adani? It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. In Hindi, the proverb is, “Ulta Chor Kotwaal Ko Daante”.
Mamata Banerjee was right when she said that had Rahul Gandhi not made the video and laughed at the mimicry of Rajya Sabha chairman, the matter would not have blown out of proportions. This is not the first time that Rahul has blamed the media. He had to give a written apology in Supreme Court for giving incorrect statement on Rafale deal. Was the media responsible for this? On describing people with Modi surnames as thieves at a public meeting, the Surat district court convicted him. Was the media responsible for this? He then automatically lost his Parliament membership after being convicted by court. Was the media responsible? His party lost assembly elections in three key states.
Was the media responsible? And when Mamata and Arvind Kejriwal floated the name of Mallikarjun Kharge instead of Rahul’s name for leading I.N.D.I.A alliance, will Rahul now blame the media? Not only Kejriwal and Mamata, but many leaders in the Congress feel that Rahul cannot lead a united opposition to victory. Rahul made lofty claims during his election campaign. During the recent assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi said, “I have taken the air out of all four tyres in Modi’s car”. He claimed that Modi will be uprooted from MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The world saw what happened in these three states. It would be better if Rahul does some self- introspection. Twenty-eight opposition parties had pinned high hopes on some concrete outcome from the Delhi meet of I.N.D.I.A alliance, but the meeting was derailed. Why? He should ponder over it.
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