Avoid personal attacks during Monsoon Session, says Veep, gets Congress fire

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday urged parliamentarians to engage in constructive politicking and avoid personal attacks during the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning from Monday. The appeal drew a retort from the Congress, with party leader Jairam Ramesh saying Dhankhar should ensure the treasury benches followed his advice.

Addressing a group of Rajya Sabha interns, Dhankhar, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, said politicians involved in name-calling others from other parties did not bode well for Indian culture.

"I appeal to politicians. Avoid personal attacks. Time for us to stop calling politicians and names. It does no good to our culture when, in various political parties, people take on senior people of other political parties and call them names," he said.

"I appeal to political parties to engage in constructive politicking. And when I say so, I appeal to all parties, parties on the treasury benches, the ruling party and parties that are on the other side. Democracy is never of a kind where the same party will ever come to power," he added.

The Vice President called for unity in the thought process of parliamentarians.

"We must have an absolute sense of decorum, mutual respect — and that is the demand of our culture. We otherwise cannot have unity in our thought process," he said.

Dhankhar said there should be a continuity of development and civilisational ethos. "That comes only from one aspect. We must respect democratic culture," he said.

"We can have differences of opinion, we can have disagreements, but how can we have bitterness in our hearts?" he wondered.

Reacting to Dhankhar's remarks, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted, "Couldn't agree more honourable Chairman sir. Well said. Now please ensure the treasury benches follow your advice."

The Monsoon Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on Monday, and is expected to be stormy with several key issues likely to be raised by the Opposition.

The central government held an all-party meeting today to seek cooperation from various parties in Parliament.

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(with inputs from PTI)