‘Need medicine…’: Vice President Jabs Rahul Gandhi on UK comments

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar slammed Rahul Gandhi for his comments in the UK

New Delhi:

Deputy Speaker and Rajya Sabha Speaker Jagdeep Dhankhar in an attack on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi asked if there was ‘a medicine to restore the dignity of parliament’.

At an Ayurveda event in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Dhankhar said the allegation that “some microphones were turned off in parliament” was simply untrue.

“Some people have said that the microphones are off in the parliament of the largest democracy in the world. Nothing can be more wrong than that,” Mr Dhankhar said today, without naming Mr Gandhi.

The Congress leader at an event in London hosted by Indian-born Labor MP Virendra Sharma on Monday had used a faulty microphone in the House of Commons to push through what he described as a ‘stuffy opposition debate ” in India.

“Our mics aren’t broken, they’re working, but you still can’t turn them on. It happened to me several times as I spoke,” Mr Gandhi told the gathering in response to a question about sharing his experience as a politician in India.

Several BJP leaders have criticized Mr Gandhi for showing India in a bad light abroad. The vice president, too, on Thursday slammed the congressman for what he called a “reckless and unfair disparagement of our well-nurtured democratic values.”

Continuing his attack on Mr Gandhi today, the Vice President said people looked up to him with respect when he went abroad, which showed how strong India is today, but some people continue to defame India when they are abroad.

“As the president of Rajya Sabha, I want to say something – that you should prepare such medicine so that the dignity of parliament is restored,” the vice president asked Patanjali’s chief executive, Balakrishna, who is also the assistant to yoga guru Ramdev, at the ayurveda event.

“… Lok Sabha is a huge panchayat where the microphones have never been turned off. Someone comes out and says the mics are off in this country… Yeah, there was a time during the emergency where the mics were off,” he said.

“Conduct in parliament and in legislative assemblies must be exemplary. There should be no disturbance there,” Mr. Dhankhar said.