TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee on mimicking Jagdeep Dhankhar: Never intended to hurt anyone

Facing backlash, Banerjee, an advocate by profession, said, "I have not said in Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha. A mock Parliament was going on. If he has taken it on his shoulder, I am really helpless. Does he really behave like this in Rajya Sabha? That's my question. I never had any intention to hurt anyone."

"It's (Mimicry is) a one type of art. Mimicry has been done by the Honourable Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha itself. I can show the video. He has done it in the last term. But we didn't take it seriously," he added.

A video, which went viral on social media, shows Banerjee, one of more than 100 suspended MPs in the winter session, was doing a mimicry of Dhankhar.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, a top leader of the country's primary opposition force, was seen video recording the act.

Dhankhar, who is the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday posted on X to say he was contacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who "expressed great pain".

The Vice President posted on X, "Received a telephone call from the Prime Minister, Shri @narendramodi Ji. He expressed great pain over the abject theatrics of some Honourable MPs and that too in the sacred Parliament complex yesterday. He told me that he has been at the receiving end of such insults for twenty years and counting but the fact that it could happen to a Constitutional office like the Vice President of India and that too in the Parliament was unfortunate.

"I told him- Mr. Prime Minister, the antics of a few won’t prevent me from performing my duty and upholding the principles enshrined in our Constitution. I am committed to those values from the bottom of my heart. None of the insults will make me change my path."

When pressed for a response to Modi's reaction, Rahul Gandhi said, "I am not commenting."