KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress MP
Kalyan Banerjee
, in the eye of a storm over his
mimicry
of Vice-President Jagdeep
Dhankhar
on the premises of Parliament complex, on Monday said mimicry was a form of expression and a
fundamental right
.
The MP, who was suspended from Lok Sabha along with several others, said the right to dissent and protest was also a fundamental right. “Right to expression is a fundamental right,” Banerjee, a senior advocate, said at an event in his constituency of Serampore. “Mimicry is a right, an expression, it is a fundamental right,” he added, asserting that nobody could “destroy” it.
Banerjee accused Dhankhar of “throttling the opposition to please the ruling dispensation at the Centre”. “How much will you bend? How much do you want to please Narendra Modi and BJP?” he said. Accusing the Vice-President of being engrossed with himself while holding a constitutional position, Banerjee, shaking his hands and body in a rapid manner, said Dhankhar should look at the country instead.
Banerjee mimicked the RS chairman on December 19, during the opposition’s protest on the stairs of Parliament against suspensions. The act drew strong condemnation from BJP, while Dhankhar termed it “shameful, ridiculous and unacceptable”.
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