Rajya Sabha MPs from the BJP and its allies today organized a unique protest to demonstrate support for Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, amid the controversy surrounding a Trinamool MP’s mimicry of the Vice-President. NDA members would stand in the House for an hour to show support for Mr. Dhankhar, the vice president and chairman of the Rajya Sabha, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

“We vehemently denounce this. All boundaries are being crossed. They are insulting people on constitutional posts time and time again. Because the Prime Minister is from the OBC community and comes from a modest background, they have been insulting him for twenty years. The President was insulted because she is a woman from a tribe. You are the son of a farmer. A member of the Jat community was elected Vice-President for the first time. This post has been insulted by them. Mr. Joshi stated, “We are making it clear that we will not put up with the Vice President and the Constitution being insulted.

“So, in your honour and to protest against them, we will stand and participate in the question and answer session,” he said.

A political uproar has been sparked by a video showing Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee imitating the vice president on parliament grounds. One of the 141 opposition members suspended is Mr. Banerjee, who demanded a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding last week’s security breach at the Parliament. The MP from Serampore began imitating the Vice-President yesterday while demonstrating in the vicinity of Makar Dwar against the new Parliament building.

There were chuckles from other MPs as Mr. Banerjee mimicked Mr. Dhankhar’s actions. Rahul Gandhi, the Congressman, was spotted filming the performance.

Not too long after, Mr. Dhankhar declared in the Rajya Sabha that he had watched the video and was “deeply pained”. The speaker, a senior Congress leader named P Chidambaram, said, “Imagine what I felt when a senior leader of your party, an MP, was filming an act making fun of me, a personal attack.”

“This is disrespect to the position of Rajya Sabha chairman as well as an insult to farmers and communities. He said, “And that too by a party that ruled the nation for so long.”