Telangana Congress Legislature Party decision to boycott the audio-visual presentation made by the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday in the State Assembly is being seen as a ‘tactical blunder’ by the party leaders.
On record, some of them justified the action on the ground that they did not want to be party to the government’s ‘irrational’ and ‘wasteful’ expenditure on redesigning of projects. But, the leaders realised that their decision was not taken in the right spirit as some legislators felt that it would have been better to attend the House and participate in the subsequent debate.
“We should not swim against the tide. When everyone heard the AV presentation with rapt attention, it would have been better for us to attend and raise our objections,” a Congress MLA, who did not wish to be identified said. The fact that he had received a large number of tweets from his well wishers abroad point out that Congress decision was wrong “only makes us feel embarrassed”.
However, TPCC president N.Uttam Kumar Reddy emphatically said that the Congress party was against the TRS government, particularly, the Chief Minister destroying parliamentary practice. “When members of Parliament or Assembly are not allowed to read papers and make extempore speeches, audio-visual presentation is unheard of. How can he be allowed to use AV presentation as a propaganda tool,” he said.
CLP Deputy Leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who also happens to be the working President of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, told The Hindu that it was not a tactical error.
“It is genuine, needed and desired action of ours. The Chief Minister wanted to show to the House that he has the full backing of the entire legislators to his plans to redesign the projects. We did not want to fall into the trap and the big conspiracy he is hatching to waste Rs. 2-lakh crore on redesigned irrigation projects,” he said.
Mr. Vikramarka was quite critical of the Chief Minister stating that his speech in the House during the AV presentation was fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions. “On one hand, the Chief Minister says that his Government did not want to get into inter-State dispute on the height of Pranahita Chevella barrage at Tummadihatti. But at the same time he also says that there will not be sufficient water at the barrage site.
