New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said that “Mimicry is a type of art” in response to the political furore he triggered by imitating Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar during the opposition's protest against the suspension of MPs in Parliament premises on Tuesday.
“I did not take anyone’s name. If he (Dhankhar) thinks it is him, then I am helpless! Does he really behave like that?” Banerjee asked reporters, adding that as a member of the lower house, he had not watched Rajya Sabha proceedings, not even on television, reports ThePrint.
“I am not aware of how the Honourable Rajya Sabha chairman speaks in the House,” Banerjee said, also stressing that he had no intention to hurt anyone.
“Dhankar Saab and I are in the same profession. He is a senior advocate. We advocates don’t hurt anyone. If he is hurt… then… But I really don’t know why he thinks it is him,” the MP said, reiterating his “respect” for the Vice President, who was previously the Bengal Governor, reports ThePrint.
“I did not want to hurt anyone, but mimicry is an art. The honourable Prime Minister has done it too… in his first term in the Lok Sabha itself. I can show you videos. But no one took it seriously,” Banerjee told the media Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi was seen making a video of Banerjee’s performance.
Banerjee is among the 141 Opposition parliamentarians suspended by the government on the security breach issue. The MP said on Wednesday that his impersonation was during a “mock Parliament” session outside the House.
President Droupadi Murmu took to social media platform X on Wednesday saying that she was “dismayed” to see the manner in which Dhankhar “was humiliated in the Parliament complex”.
“Elected representatives must be free to express themselves, but their expression should be within the norms of dignity and courtesy. That has been the Parliamentary tradition we are proud of, and the People of India expect them to uphold it,” the President said.
Dhankhar thanked Murmu, saying her words were a “timely reminder that basic courtesies must always remain”. “I am committed to upholding Constitutional principles till my last breath. No insults can prevent me from doing so,” he said.
Dhankhar also shared on his X timeline that Prime Minister Modi had called him and “expressed great pain over the abject theatrics” of MPs.
“He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for twenty years and counting but the fact that it could happen to a Constitutional office like the Vice President of India and that too in the Parliament was unfortunate,” he wrote.
The Rajya Sabha MPs belonging to the BJP remained standing in the House for an hour, as a show of solidarity towards Dhankhar.