'Why MP recorded...': Jagdeep Dhankhar slams Rahul Gandhi, Congress over video row

New Delhi: Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday slammed TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee for mocking him outside the Parliament on a phone camera held by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, calling the act an insult to the post of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He also criticised the Congress party for allegedly posting the video on its Instagram account.

"A senior member of Parliament videographs another member. Why? I tell you I have suffered greatly," he said in a statement.

"You have no idea what kind of reaction people have against this institution and today we got a chance to see its lowest level," he added.

Addressing Congress MP P Chidambaram, he called out Rahul Gandhi for recording the TMC MP's antics.

"Mr. Chidambaram is here. Mr. Chidambaram, you are a very senior member. Imagine what must have been going through my heart when one of your senior leaders was making a video of an MP making fun of the Speaker in which I was being personally attacked," he added.

"This is not just an insult to a farmer and a community, it is an insult to the post of Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. And that too by a member of a political party that has ruled for so long," he said.

Jagdeep Dhankhar called the Congress party's action of posting the video on the social media platform "shameful".

"On Instagram, Mr. Chidambaram, your party had posted a video which was later removed, this is shameful. You have used the official spokesperson of the (Congress) party to insult me, to insult my background as a farmer, to insult my position as a Jat, to insult my position as Chairman," he said.

Banerjee, one of the suspended Opposition MPs, was seen mocking the Rajya Sabha Chairman at the Parliament's Makar Dwar. Gandhi was seen recording the act on his mobile phone.

Later, when the house reconvened at 12 noon, he issued strong disapproval of the act.

“Office of Chairman, Rajya Sabha and Office of Speaker is very different. Political parties will have their cross currents, they will have exchanges, but imagine a senior leader of your party, video graphing another member of another party...How ridiculous, how shameful, how unacceptable," he said.

Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam said the conduct of the TMC MP had put the entire nation to shame.

"Parliament is no place for drama. There are methods to register your opposition but mocking and insulting the Vice President is not befitting to a healthy democracy," he said.

BJP MP Rakesh Singh said the act was an example of how the Opposition was sabotaging democracy.

"This is an example of how the Opposition is sabotaging parliamentary democracy. TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee is mocking the Vice President in the Parliament premises, and Rahul Gandhi is recording the video; nothing can be more unfortunate than this," he said.

With inputs from PTI, ANI