'We aren't children..135-cr people laughing at us': VicePresident admonishes Rajya Sabha

The Vice-President, who is also the ex-officio chairman of Rajya Sabha, stood up in his place and gesturing to the ruling and the Opposition by turn said, “This kind of display of conduct and behaviour gives us a very, very bad name…We are setting a very bad example. People outside are disillusioned.

“Even the observations of the Chair which are wholesome are indigestible. What a painful scenario we are having. Trust me, 135 crore people are laughing at us. They are thinking, wondering — what level have we fallen to."

Dhankhar had to repeatedly seek “one second” before he could make the statement amid the heated verbal exchanges between the two sides.

Today’s chaos broke out over Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge's recent comment on the BJP and RSS's "total lack of contribution" to the Independence struggle at a rally in Rajasthan.

The Vice-President slammed the members for disrupting each other’s speech over statements made outside the House when BJP-led ruling NDA members interrupted Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for his comments at the rally in Rajasthan's Alwar.

The Congress president had said the Grand Old Party “won independence for the country”, and its leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed their lives.

“Has even your dog at home died for the country? Still, they (BJP) claim to be patriots and if we say something we are termed as deshdrohi (anti-nationals)."

Enraged by the comments, the BJP raised strident calls for an apology. “We condemn Mallikarjun Kharge's comments, the way he used offensive language and tried to spread a lie. He should apologise for using offensive language in Alwar,” said Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in Rajya Sabha.

Amid the tumultuous scenes, Dhankhar said, "Something may have been said outside the House in a moment of emotion.

"Such an utterance may or may not have basis. There may even be two different opinions on what was said. But that should not mean that when the House Leader speaks, there's disturbance from the [Opposition side]; and when the Leader of Opposition speaks, there's disturbance from the other side. Is this a tit-for-tat?" he said, adding, "We are not children."

He asked the members to put on record supporting documents if they make any assertion in the House that they don't wish to be removed from the record.

"In performing my constitutional duties, I will neither look at this side, nor at this side; I will look only to the Constitution," he said and told Kharge to make his point.

Rejecting the demand for apology, Kharge repeated his comment on BJP sans the dog analogy and defended his argument, saying: "Those who fought for the country's independence — you are asking them to apologise?"