Rajya Sabha chairman and vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him to express his “pain” over the alleged disrespect Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmaker Kalyan Banerjee showed by mimicking the presiding officer of Parliament’s Upper House.

In a post on X, Dhankhar wrote Modi shared his experience of being belittled even as Banerjee insisted he respects constitutional positions and did not intend to hurt anyone. Banerjee maintained mimicry is not an offence and that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using the issue to divert attention from the suspension of 141 Opposition lawmakers for raising the issue of the Parliament security breach. He added even Modi mimicked people.

President Droupadi Murmu said she was dismayed over Dhankhar’s humiliation while asking elected representatives to remain within the norms of dignity and courtesy. “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,” Murmu said in a post on X.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh echoed Banerjee and said a desperate attempt was being made to divert attention from the unprecedented suspension of lawmakers by raising the issue of mimicry. “Remember who mimicked whom and that too in the Lok Sabha?” Ramesh said on X. He shared a video of Modi’s speech in Lok Sabha after Rahul Gandhi hugged him in 2018.

In his post on X, Dhankhar wrote Modi expressed “great pain” over the “abject theatrics” of some lawmakers, and that too in the “sacred Parliament” complex. “He [Modi] 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,” Dhankar wrote.

Dhankhar said he told Modi the “antics of a few” would not prevent him from performing his duty and upholding the Constitution.

On Tuesday, Dhankhar said the mimicry, which Rahul Gandhi was seen filming, “ravaged “ the office of the Rajya Sabha chairman and was a personal insult to him. “…[Congress] put a video on Instagram, which was withdrawn later on. That was a shame to me. You used the official Twitter handle of the spokesperson to demean me, insult me, insult my background as a farmer, my position as a Jat, insult my position as a chairman…these are too serious issues.”

Speaking in the House on Wednesday, Dhankhar said he would not tolerate any insult to Parliament and his vice-president post while reiterating his anguish over the mimicry and its recording. He said the act insulted the honour of the post, the farmers, and his Jat community.

Dhankhar asked Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to ponder over it before adjourning the House for the fourth time. “…you [Kharge] are silent.”

Kharge called against linking caste to every issue and wondered whether he should cite his Dalit origins every time he is disallowed to speak in Rajya Sabha. He added the chairperson’s job is to protect other members but Dhankhar himself was making such a statement. “They should not incite people in the name of caste,” he said. He wondered whether the government should apologise for Modi and home minister Amit Shah’s references to the security breach outside and not speaking on the issue in the House.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said it is sad for the country when people holding constitutional positions talk about their caste. He added the government was trying to wash its hands of the Parliament security breach.

TMC leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee downplayed the issue, saying the mimicry was not meant to be disrespectful and just political and casual. “You would not even have known it if Rahul [Gandhi] had not recorded it,” she said at the Parliament complex where she met Modi over pending dues to West Bengal.

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla met Dhankhar and expressed his concern over the “serious misdemeanor” of “demeaning and denigrating” the constitutional office of the vice president. “It is shocking that one MP [member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi] chose to amplify this ignoble act by video graphing. This is a new low and no one believing in democracy will ever appreciate it,” he said on X.