Telangana Assembly started off on a tumultuous note on Friday with the Telugu Desam Party legislators stalling the proceedings demanding sacking of the Agriculture minister P. Srinivas Reddy for his reported remarks on farmers’ suicides. After repeated disruptions and two adjournments, 10 TDP legislators were suspended for a day.
It was not just the TDP members, but the BJP and Congress members too rushed to the well of the House holding placards and raising slogans immediately after the House assembled. The Congress MLAs wanted the House to take up the adjournment motion on farmers’ suicides and power crisis.
With the treasury benches vociferously opposing the TDP demand while asserting that the government was ready to discuss all issues, the TDP members insisted on an apology from the Agriculture Minister. The game of one-upmanship was visible as the TRS hit back accusing the TDP that it was disrupting the proceedings as a discussion would expose the role of Andhra Pradesh in deepening the crisis of the farming community in Telangana by denying the State’s due share in power.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Ministers T. Harish Rao and E. Rajender sprang to their feet several times to assert that the government was ready for any discussion. Their argument was that the TDP was only focussing on stalling the House proceedings.
Speaker S. Madhusudana Chary adjourned the House within 10 minutes, as acrimony prevailed in the House. Flaying the three parties, MIM Floor Leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said they appeared to be not interested in discussing issues by indulging in drama and creating ‘tamasha’. Perturbed by the remarks, Leader of the Opposition K. Jana Reddy sought withdrawal of such views belittling other parties.
Mr. Harish Rao later moved the motion seeking suspension of E.Dayakar Rao, A.Revanth Reddy, M.Kishan Reddy, G.Sayanna, S.Venkata Veeraiah, T.Prakash Goud, A.Gandhi, M.Krishna Rao, M.Gopinath and Rajender Reddy as they stuck to their strategy. The Chief Minister said though the suspension was painful, they had no patience even to hear what the government wanted to say.
