K.V. Seetharamaiah
The suspended TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicking the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar and the Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filming it bear testimony to their lack of maturity in the public life. Dhankar has come from a humble background and from farming sector belonging to jat community. The behaviour of Banerjee and Gandhi would elate only their followers. Not all. The scant regard the two leaders have for the constitutional post is manifest and highly unbecoming of their status. People have not failed to notice how badly Banerjee was looking when he was mimicking. Neither Dhankar nor the post of Vice President and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha can be denigrated with their immature behaviour. Rather, they have showcased to the people that they lack mature mindedness. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed anguish over the V-P insult. Dhankar has asserted that no insults would change his path. Modi says that he is being insulted by the opposition parties for the last 20 years. In politics bouquets and brickbats are common. But the post of President and Vice President is above politics. Due respect must be given to the post. There are people to pity Rahul and he is pitied for his immaturity. After the Prime Minister, President Draupadi Murmu has said that V-P has been humiliated in Parliament complex. She has expressed dismay at the sight of the TMC MP mimicking the V-P. She has exhorted the MPs to adhere to norms. If the MP has mimicked V-P because he is also one of the suspended MPs, his suspension is not revoked. Moreover, Banerjee is Lok Sabha Member. He has been suspended by the Lok Sabha Speaker. Dhankar has nothing to do with his suspension. It is the abominable behaviour of the MPs with placards inside the Parliament House landed them into such a sorry pass. Modi had repeatedly told that the security breach requires a thorough probe, not the discussion. The suspension of 142 Members of the House has provoked them to say that the democracy has been murdered. If the suspension amounts to murder of democracy, the democracy was already murdered in 1989 when 63 Members were suspended. Democracy has been mocked by the opposition parties. The Constitution of India allows democratic expression of views. Democratic rights can be used but not misused. Those who do not have culture to behave better are disgrace to the democracy. Ultimately, Banerjee had to eat a humble pie by pleading that he did not intend to hurt the V-P. He has made a vain bid to cover-up his misbehaviour with the plea that mimickry is a “type of art”. If he had performed mimickry as a stage artist in a stage, nobody would have been offended. But he has used the stairs of Parliament to make fun of Dhankar in retaliation against the suspension of MPs. An advocate has reportedly filed a complaint against Banerjee for mimicry of Vice President. There is little to expect that he would be punished from the police complaint. The courts may not take cognisance of his behaviour to punish him because he has not caused bodily harm to anybody nor has he abused anybody. Condemnation of his behaviour from all right thinking persons is the only panacea to bring him back to sense.