Jagdeep Dhankhar: A man of many persuasions

It was an unexpected phone call. Home Minister Amit Shah was on line. Jagdeep Dhankhar didn’t expect the caller or the message. A few days later, on July 30, 2019, he took oath as Governor of West Bengal. Till he assumed the post, he had never met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The former Vice President had taken to relaying this story often to illustrate perhaps his distance from the government.

In his four-decade-long political career, Mr. Dhankhar, 74, had worked in three parties of distinct persuasions — the Janata Dal, the Congress and finally the BJP. He may not have known Mr. Modi personally, but people close to him claim that he knew RSS intimately. In August 2024, while speaking in the upper house, he referred to the RSS as a “global think tank” with “unimpeachable credibility”.

Jagdeep Dhankhar was born in 1951 in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan and studied at Sainik School in Chittorgarh on scholarship. A graduate in Physics, he decided to pursue a career in law.

Mr. Dhankhar appeared on behalf of those accused of murdering 18-year-old Roop Kanwar, by burning her alive on her husband’s pyre on September 4, 1987. All the 45 persons charged for her death have been acquitted.

His political career began with a meeting with socialist leader Chaudhary Devi Lal. “I was not his relative… I remember the day when I saw him for the first time. When he asked me to contest the election, I replied that I was a pleader. He said to remove the ‘P’ and become a leader,” said Mr. Dhankhar, while addressing a convocation ceremony in Haryana in March this year.

His appearance in favour of Roop Kanwar’s in-laws gained him favour among the Rajputs, who ran an agitation against the state for taking legal action in the case. It was one of the factors leading to Mr. Dhankhar’s victory in the 1989 general elections as the Janata Dal candidate. In the 11-month stint of the Janata Dal government at the Centre, Mr. Dhankhar became Minister of State (parliamentary affairs).

In 1991, he joined the Congress and contested from the Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency, but lost by over 25,000 votes to the BJP candidate. Two years later, he contested the Assembly elections in Rajasthan from Kishangarh, which he won by 1,958 votes defeating the BJP candidate.

In 1998, he appeared for actor Salman Khan in the 1998 blackbuck poaching case. In 2003, he joined the BJP. Eventually, he grew closer to the RSS and was one of the lawyers advising senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, who was linked to the 2007 Ajmer bomb blast case.

Role of Governor

On July 30, 2019, he was sworn in as the Governor of West Bengal. His tenure was marked by several public confrontations with the State government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Trinamool Congress referred to him as the “real Leader of the Opposition”. But when the BJP fielded him as the Vice Presidential candidate, the Trinamool chose to abstain, accusing the Congress, which fielded Margaret Alva, of not consulting them. Mr. Dhankhar won the 2022 election with 74.37% votes and recorded the highest poll-victory margin since 1992.

As the Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President, Mr. Dhankhar hit headlines for his frequent critical remarks against the judiciary, insisting that the courts should only interpret the laws and not interfere in its making. The Opposition accused him of bias towards the government and had threatened to move a no-confidence motion against him in December 2024.

Since his resignation on July 21, nearly two years ahead of completing his tenure, citing health reasons, the opposition MPs have suggested that a farewell should be organised for him and many have reached out to Mr. Dhankhar but haven’t got any response.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had welcomed the announcement of his name as the NDA’s Vice Presidential candidate with a post on X praising him for his “illustrious legal, legislative and gubernatorial career”, bade him goodbye with short post, “Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji has got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities, including as the Vice President of India. Wishing him good health.”