A fresh confrontation erupted between Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday, just days after Bachchan had expressed strong objections to Dhankhar for mentioning her with her husband’s name during a previous Parliamentary discussion.
Significantly, today’s clash occurred as the upper house was undergoing a heated exchange. While Chairman Dhankhar accused opposition MPs of showing disrespect towards the Constitution and democracy, he then called upon SP MP Jaya Bachchan to address the House.
However, in her address, Bachchan took a dig at the Chairman while calling out his inappropriate tone. “I, Jaya Amitabh Bachchan, would like to highlight that as an artist, I understand body language and expressions. I’m sorry to say that your tone is not acceptable. We are colleagues, you may be sitting on the Chair…” she remarked.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar swiftly interrupted Bachchan, instructing her to take her seat. “Jaya ji, take your seat. You have earned a great reputation. An actor is subject to the director. You are not seeing what I see from here. I am someone who has gone out of the way. Enough of this. You may be a celebrity, but you must understand decorum,” he asserted.
Union Health Minister JP Nadda took strong exception to the charges of Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan against Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and said today’s incident is highly condemnable and in a way, a violation of democratic values. Expressing concern over the behaviour of the Opposition in the past few days, he urged the Rajya Sabha to pass a resolution condemning the incidents.
Moreover, Jaya Bachchan speaking to the media outside the Parliament later voiced her frustration over the incident while also demanding an apology from the chairman. She said, “I objected to the tone used by the Chair. We are not school children. Some of us are senior citizens. I was upset with the tone, especially when the Leader of the Opposition stood up to speak, and his microphone was switched off. How can you do this? The Leader of the Opposition should be allowed to speak.”
She further added, “I mean, using unparliamentary language repeatedly, which I do not want to repeat here, is unacceptable. He told me, ‘You may be a celebrity, I do not care.’ I’m not asking him to care, but I am a Member of Parliament. This is my fifth term. I know what I am saying. The way things are being spoken in Parliament these days, it’s unprecedented. I need an apology.”