Jagdeep Dhankhar slams Mallikarjun Kharge for entering well of Rajya Sabha: ‘Tainted day’

Huge ruckus ensued in the Rajya Sabha on Friday as the opposition demanded a discussion on alleged irregularities in the medical entrance examination NEET as the House took up Motion of Thanks to the President's address. Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed his anger over opposition MPs including Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge entering the well of the House.

“Today is such a tainted day in the history of the Indian Parliament that the Leader of the Opposition himself has come to the Well. This has never happened before. I am pained, shocked. The Indian parliamentary tradition will deteriorate to such an extent that the Leader of the Opposition will come to the Well, the Deputy Leader will come to the Well,” Vice-President Dhankhar told the House.

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“The deputy leader of the party Pramod Tiwari also walked in, and senior leader Mukul Wasnik also walked in. It was a very painful moment for me. We expect the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the House to exemplify their conduct that is worth emulating,” he added.

Commenting on Kharge entering the well, the Rajya Sabha chairperson said,"He (Kharge) came to the Well the entire House saw. But what is more painful, hurtful for me, is that he has outside, misreported, misrepresented and has spoken untruth... He is in denial mode and his statement which has been put on Twitter (now X) ... is self-contradictory."

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The Rajya Sabha was adjourned multiple times during the day as the opposition INDIA bloc MPs raised slogans to push for an immediate discussion on the NEET row.

Congress chief Kharge's clarification

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge responded to the V-P's remark. “It is his (Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's) mistake...I went inside to draw his attention. But even then he was not looking... I was drawing attention. He was only looking at the ruling party. When I draw his attention as per the rules, he should look at me, but instead, he deliberately ignored me to insult me.”

“So what was left for me? So to draw attention I would have to either go inside or shout very loudly. So I will definitely say that it is Chairman Sahab's mistake. I say that he should not do this and should maintain the dignity of this Rajya Sabha.”

“There have been such big scams, NEET exam, the paper has been leaked, lakhs of children are worried. So to draw attention to the problem of people, we asked for a specific discussion. We did not want to disturb anyone, we only wanted to raise the issues of the students...But he did not give it a chance, did not even pay attention to it and that is why we had to do this,” Kharge told ANI.