Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sudden resignation from the post of vice-president of India two years before his term was set to expire has, expectedly, sent the political grapevine into a tizzy. Mr Dhankhar ostensibly resigned on health grounds. But tongues, unsurprisingly, are wagging: the Congress has declared that there is more to this unexpected development than meets the eye. There is even feverish speculation about whether Mr Dhankhar’s terms with the current regime had remained in the pink of health in recent times. Some suggest that differences may have cropped up on account of the vice-president’s decision to accept the Opposition’s appeal to remove Justice Yashwant Verma. There are even whispers that the Bharatiya Janata Party is keen to ease Nitish Kumar into Mr Dhankhar’s position in a bid to bag the chief ministerial crown in Bihar. The prime minister’s response — a perfunctory message — to Mr Dhankhar putting down the papers has, of course, fed fuel to such chatter.
But the political conspiracy theories should not deflect attention from an important aspect. This concerns Mr Dhankhar’s controversial legacy as vice-president. He had set a somewhat dubious precedent by becoming the first Chair of the Rajya Sabha against whom the Opposition brought a no-confidence motion last year. He is said to have conducted House proceedings in a manner that was favourable to the Treasury benches: this kind of partisanship is unacceptable from the holder of a constitutional office. Equally glaring were his repeated statements that appear to have targeted the judiciary on such issues as the apex court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission or, later, the highest court’s decision to create a time frame for the president and governors when it comes to giving assent to bills. Admittedly, this kind of confrontational — indecorous? — attitude demonstrated by the vice-president appears to be contagious in other high offices of New India: governors of states ruled by parties from the Opposition at the Centre — Mr Dhankhar had been Bengal’s governor — have shown a similar streak. Mr Dhankhar’s departure opens the doors for the appointment of a new vice-president. The National Democratic Alliance is comfortably placed in terms of numbers to have its chosen candidate as Mr Dhankhar’s successor. The point, though, is this: would Mr Dhankhar’s successor sprout similar problematic spots in the Chair?