Traumatised by Rajya Sabha disruptions: Jagdeep Dhankhar

Vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said he is pained at the absence of discussion and deliberations and traumatised by disruptions and disturbances in the Rajya Sabha.

Addressing the 8th Dharma Dhamma International conference organised at Gujarat University, Dhankhar said the Constitutional ordainment of public representatives is being sacrificed on narrow partisan grounds.

"As the vice-president, I am also chairman of the Rajya Sabha. I have felt the need for observation of dharma (duty). I am pained at the absence of discussion and deliberation. I am traumatised by the disruptions and disturbances. The enormity of the situation created by departure of dharma pains me. The Constitutional ordainment of public representatives is being sacrificed on narrow partisan grounds," he said.

"Such a failure of duty is adharm (unrighteousness) in its extremity. I urge all of you to enlighten your representatives that they represent the mood of the nation and the mood of the nation is to engage in your Constitutional dharma, work for larger good of humanity. It is certainly not to create disruptions or lend wings to narratives that are anti-national," Dhankhar asserted.

The VP said he was speaking on the issue as it is a time when "Bharat is seeking to realise its age old place of Vishwaguru". Everybody has to follow their dharma so that India becomes a developed country by 2047, he reiterated.

"It is disservice to dharma when informed minds knowingly seek to lead people astray to gain political mileage or sub-serve self interest comprising national interest," he said.

When a knowledgeable person, despite knowing the reality, uses his iconic status to lead people astray to gain political mileage, then observation of silence at such misadventure is no less than sacrilege of dharma, Dhankhar said.

Such a nefarious tendency targeting our nation as well as humanity needs a befitting rebuff as a tribute to our dharma, while tolerance of such forces will not be an act of dharma, he added. There was need to "neutralise" such forces that seek to belittle dharma, tarnish our institutions and run down our nationalism, the VP asserted.

In an apparent reference to statements by a Congress leader that the kind of upheaval being seen in Bangladesh could be repeated in India, Dhankhar said, "How can anyone who believes in dharma act in such a manner? No words are sufficient to condemn their action. Their action is adharm in extremity," he said.

"In the Bhagwat Gita, Shri Krishna teaches Arjun to perform his dharma without attachment to results. Those at the helm of affairs should focus on performance of duty without concern for results," Dhankhar added.

Gujarat governor Acharya Devrat and chief minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, along with Hindu and Buddhist religious teachers, were present at the function.