'Something very drastic must have happened.'
"If a senior person wants to resign, the political leadership gets a sense of it and has a mechanism to avert it. There was no mechanism in place to avert, delay or stop the VP's resignation," says leading political analyst Rasheed Kidwai, who has reported on national politics for nearly three decades.
In a two-part interview with Rediff's Archana Masih, Mr Kidwai discusses the VP's resignation which is the biggest political surprise New Delhi has seen in a long time.
What do you see the reasons for Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's unprecedented resignation?
It is very unusual for a vice president to resign during his tenure. In the past, vice presidents have only resigned if they have been elevated to the post of President.
Therefore, this is unprecedented and the timing is abrupt.
Mr Dhankhar has cited health reasons for the resignation and we must take it at face value, but it would have been perhaps far more appropriate if it happened on the weekend, before the start of the Monsoon session of Parliament. Then it would have been amicable and logical.
What is your assessment of his tenure as VP and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha?
In my reporting career, I have seen few politically active chairmen of the Rajya Sabha as Mr Dhankhar.
He was a very hands-on chairman of the Rajya Sabha, not so much as vice president.
Till about the 1990s, most vice presidents like Shankar Dayal Sharma, R Venkatraman, K R Narayanan were non-partisan even though they had political affiliations and came from a political background.
Up to President Narayanan, the VP as presiding officer of Rajya Sabha was very restrained and would only come during the Question Hour and supervise.
It was, I would say, uneventful.
The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is within his or her rights to preside over the Rajya Sabha the whole day or any time. There is nothing unconstitutional, but this was a later innovation.
Mr Dhankhar was very hands-on and very political. The combined Opposition had moved an impeachment notice against him which was allowed to lapse on a technical ground, otherwise, he would have had to face impeachment proceedings.
What did you make of the content of the resignation letter?
Journalists tend to look at clues and if you look at the letter of the resignation, I realised, it looks more like a thank you note.
An urgent letter stating medical reasons would have been short, but this letter has 5-6 paragraphs.
So, we do not know what transpired. It is unprecedented and laced with intrigue.
The sequence of events is very intriguing and questionable.
Jairam Ramesh had tweeted that the VP had a meeting at 12.30 and reconvened it at 4.30, but J P Nadda and Kiren Rijiju who were present at the earlier meeting didn't show up.
So, the speculation is that something happened in that period?
The Opposition's sympathy and support for this is laced with politics and intrigue.
Mr Dhankhar was intensely disliked by the Opposition as chairman of the Rajya Sabha. The Opposition constantly accused him of being partisan and an extended arm of the government.
After all these allegations, now that he has resigned, there is an outpouring of sympathy which goes beyond courtesy.
I think there is so much anti-Modi sentiment that the Opposition sees it as a compelling opportunity to revise their strategy and sympathise with Mr Dhankhar in order to target Mr Modi.
In the era of social media, there was total silence from the prime minister about the vice president's resignation on health grounds till the afternoon.
There is no tweet from the home minister or the defence minister and other leaders and ministers.
There is a complete, stoic silence.
So, perhaps there is something more than what we know.
Why could not this have been handled better by the government?
The vice president and chairman of Rajya Sabha is a high office. It is among the top three in the order of protocol.
Assuming there was some point of difference with the government over any matter, for example, the Opposition's resolution getting admitted -- in that case also there exists a resolution mechanism.
For the sake of propriety, the government, rationally speaking, would not want to face a situation like an abrupt resignation.
Despite what Mr Jairam Ramesh is saying, it still does not tell us the full story.
Whatever it was it could have been sorted out.
Something very drastic must have happened.
Yesterday?
Whether it happened yesterday (July 21) or was it a chain reaction of some political adjustment, we do not know.
It is unfortunate that there has been a decline in the appointments to Constitutional posts of President, VP, governors over the years.
Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, R Venkatraman, Shankar Dayal Sharma, A P J Abdul Kalam, K R Narayanan, Pranab Mukherjee carried political heft, had roots in society and were highly respected.
I would say even the UPA's choice of Pratibha Patil was not in accordance with the political heft that the high Constitutional office deserves.
The decline had started from the time of the UPA, especially in the choice of governors.
The letter said he was resigning with 'immediate effect'. Does it indicate anger at how he has been treated?
Look, a medical emergency can also warrant a resignation.
The resignation is authentic. It is a signed official paper. We do not have any counter evidence or argument to say that it is incorrect.
Since I am a political reporter, I know that if a senior person wants to resign, the political leadership gets a sense of it and has a mechanism to avert it.
There was no mechanism in place to avert, delay or stop it.
What does it mean for the BJP which has always displayed complete harmony, at least, to the public even if there is turbulence within?
Dissent and disquiet are part and parcel of a thriving democracy.
But you are right, post-2014, intra-party disquiet or one-upmanship has taken a back seat, at least it was not evident in the public domain.
Whether this is a pointer toward internal disquiet in the BJP, we are not in a position to say because it all in the realm of speculation and conjecture.
We also know there is a sideshow going on about the delay in the selection of the new BJP chief.
It's an internal party matter, but is the delay linked to this?
Is somebody being adjusted?
Is there a deadlock between various pressure groups within the Sangh Parivar?
Does it have any bearing on it?
We don't know, but all this will reflect on the choice of the next VP.
There is plenty of political gossip floating around, and we know that there is some grain of truth in every gossip.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff