NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said that former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned due to health reasons and urged people not to read political motives into the development.“Dhankhar ji was sitting on a constitutional post and during his tenure, he did good work according to the constitution. He has resigned due to his personal health problem. One should not try to stretch it too much and find something,” Shah told ANI in an exclusive interview. Dhankhar had resigned on July 21 citing health issues.
The home minister also defended the government’s proposed Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, which seeks mandatory removal of prime ministers, chief ministers and other ministers if jailed for serious offences. “I am sure it will be passed. There will be many people in the Congress party and in the opposition who will support morality and maintain the moral ground,” Amit Shah said.He accused the opposition of resisting reforms to shield its leaders. “Even today, they are trying that if they ever go to jail, they will easily form the government from jail. The jail will be made CM House, PM House and the DGP, Chief Secretary, Cabinet Secretary or Home Secretary will take orders from the jail,” he remarked. Shah also targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his “Voter Adhikar Yatra” in Bihar. “There is a big difference between managing a program and communicating with the public,” he said. Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s past actions, he added, “What was the justification of Rahul Gandhi for tearing the ordinance brought by Manmohan Singh to save Lalu Yadav? If there was morality that day, then is it not there today because you have lost three consecutive elections?”On the issue of Parliament security, Shah defended the deployment of CISF, countering opposition criticism. “The marshals enter the House only when the Speaker orders them. This change happened after a big incident when some Leftist people had sprayed inside the Parliament… They (Opposition) need excuses and they want to create confusion among the public. After losing three elections, the level of frustration has made them lose common sense,” he said.On August 5, opposition parties had protested in the Rajya Sabha, alleging CISF personnel had been deployed in the House. The Chair and the government, however, clarified that the security personnel present were part of parliamentary security services.
