A dozen Ministers of Telangana led by K. Jana Reddy on Wednesday wrote a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee against granting further extension of deadline for the Assembly to discuss the bifurcation Bill as it was a move by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to delay the process of formation of Telangana State besides scuttling the constitutional process already initiated.
The Ministers said they were protesting against the despicable move of the Chief Minister and a few of his colleagues to distort the Constitution and its democratic spirit by arrogating to themselves the powers of the government and the Council of Ministers.
This was despite the explicit opposition by a large number of Ministers to the illegal and unconstitutional resolutions in the House in the name of the government, knowing well the absence of discussions and much less a consensus in the Cabinet.
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What pained them most was the fact that the Chief Minister was trying to dictate to the Constitutional Head – President – what he was supposed to do or not in matters of Parliamentary process.
The letter said the resolution moved by the Chief Minister in Assembly and Leader of the House in Council was not only bad in law but unconstitutional.
It went against the spirit of Articles 163 and 164 where the Council of Ministers was supposed to act collectively and jointly. More shocking was the tenor of the resolution as it attempted to dictate the course of action to the President.
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The Ministers also said they had already written to the Governor registering their protest. They hoped the President will understand their agony.
Mr. Jana Reddy, apart, the letter was also written in the names of Ponnala Laxmaiah, P. Sudershan Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, R. Venkat Reddy, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, D. Nagender, M. Mukesh Goud, J. Geetha Reddy, Basawaraju Saraiah, D.K. Aruna, V. Sunitha Lakshma Reddy and G. Prasad Kumar.