The Telangana issue disrupted parliament proceedings on Thursday. The Lok Sabha, after witnessing five adjournments, was forced to adjourn for the day and the Rajya Sabha witnessed two adjournments in the morning.
In the Lok Sabha, the two MPs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) – K. Chandrasekhar Rao and actor-politician M. Vijayashanti — supported by 11 Congress MPs from Telangana region and the BJP benches raised slogans such as “jai Telangana” and “we want Telangana.”
Both the TRS members moved to the well of the House while raising slogans. At one stage, Speaker Meira Kumar even offered them a chance to speak if they went back to their seats. In the post-lunch session, the two MPs sat in the well disrupting discussion on the railway budget.
Leaders such as L.K. Advani (BJP), Sharad Yadav (JD-U) and Gurudas Das Gupta (CPI) too unsuccessfully pleaded with them to return to their seats.
The 11 Congress MPs, including G. Vivekanand, Manda Jagannath, S. Rajaiah, Ponnam Prabakar and Madhu Goud Yaskhi, raised pro-Telangana slogans and did not heed requests from party seniors either. Interestingly, they were not seen in the House when it met at 3.15 p.m. before being adjourned for the day.
At one point, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, sought an assurance from the government that the Bill on the creation of Telangana would be tabled in the ongoing session itself. The BJP was ready to support the Bill, she said.
In the Rajya Sabha, the House was adjourned twice during question hour following protests from BJP MPs. When the House met for the day, BJP MPs, including senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu, asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was present, what the Congress-led UPA government was doing on the issue.
However, Chairman Hamid Ansari asked Opposition MPs not to disturb question hour and to raise the issue during zero hour.
However, as protests and slogan-shouting of BJP MPs continued, Mr. Ansari adjourned the House, first for 15 minutes and later for the entire question hour.
Late in the evening the Congress leadership convened a meeting with Congress MPs from Telangana, discussed the issue threadbare and how to move ahead.
Meanwhile, a delegation of 19 Congress MPs from coastal Andhra/Rayalaseema, including K.S. Rao, K. Bapi Raju and V. Arun Kumar met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and asked the government to implement point number six of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee report which recommended “continuation of united Andhra Pradesh by simultaneously providing certain definite constitutional/statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region — creation of a statutory empowered Telangana regional council.”
