Who insults parliamentary procedures on daily basis, not us: Kapil Sibal to Jagdeep Dhankhar

Kapil Sibal. File Pic

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday hit out at Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar over his criticism of Congress leader P Chidambaram's remarks on the new criminal laws, and said it was not the opposition that insults parliamentary procedures on a daily basis.

Sibal's remarks came a day after Dhankhar lashed out at Chidambaram over his comment that the three new criminal laws were "drafted by part-timers", terming it as "inexcusable" and urging him to withdraw his "derogatory, defamatory and insulting" observation.

Dhankhar had said he was "shocked beyond words" when he read Chidambaram's interview to a leading national daily wherein he had said that "the new laws were drafted by part-timers".

In a post on X, Sibal said Sunday, "Dhankar: Criticised Chidambaram's statement that part-timers drafted the three criminal laws was an 'inexcusable insult to the wisdom of Parliament'. We are all part-timers Dhankar ji!"

"And who insults parliamentary procedures on a daily basis? Not us!" said Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and an Independent Rajya Sabha MP.

Addressing an event in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, Dhankhar had referred to Chidambaram's remarks and said, "Are we part-timers in Parliament? It is an inexcusable insult to the wisdom of the Parliament...I do not have words strong enough to condemn such a narrative being set afloat and an MP being labelled as a part-timer."

"I appeal to him (Chidambaram) from this platform, please withdraw this derogatory, defamatory and highly insulting observations about the Members of Parliament (MPs). I hope he does it," the vice president had said.

Earlier, amid the NEET row, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "silence" on the issue. Sibal urged PM Modi to accept that "corruption is prevalent" in the country.

The result of the NEET-UG 2024, declared on June 4, caused an uproar amid several issues- 1,500 students received grace marks, a high number of perfect scores, and allegations of a leaked question paper. Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court and high courts by students seeking a re-test alleging irregularities and discrepancies. The SC has allowed retest of over 1,500 students who got grace marks.

"First of all, the Prime Minister should come in front of the people in Parliament and say that yes, we made a mistake, Corruption has been going on in the country for a long time and it is prevalent in every department. Until the government does not accept this matter, there will be no solution to this," Kapil Sibal said while speaking to ANI on Sunday from California.

"I remember that the Prime Minister had said that corruption in our ministries has been eradicated. So it seems that this (NEET) is not a case of corruption, this is a matter of goods and services," Sibal quipped. He further took a dig at the Prime Minister's "silence" over the NEET row and other issues like Manipur violence, reported ANI.

"I will remind the Prime Minister of what you said; if you see corruption taking place, then you must comment on it in some way or another. You always remain silent. Whether it is about Manipur, he remains silent or whether it is about terrorism, he remains silent. Terrorism will end, cash transactions will end, and corruption will also end. We are watching all this," he added, reported ANI.

Sibal, who is a former HRD minister, said that the matter of NEET does not come under the purview of the HRD ministry but is a matter of the Health Ministry.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)