Nine Congress and two TDP members were suspended for a day for "obstructing the proceedings and creating a ruckus" in the winter session of Assembly.
Nine Telangana Congress and two Telangana TDP members were suspended for a day for "obstructing the proceedings and creating a ruckus" in the winter session of Telangana Assembly within minutes of its commencement on Saturday morning.
Like the calm before the storm, the winter session of the Assembly, after peaceful deliberations on the first day yesterday, suddenly went pell-mell on the second day with Opposition members storming onto the well of the House and vociferously demanding that their adjournment motions be taken up on the Party defections case.
Even as the House assembled at 10 am, and the Speaker took up a question hour as per the agenda, Congress members holding placards stood up and raised slogans demanding that their adjournment motion regarding the decision of the Chair with regard to the defections of the members who had defected to the TRS.
The Speaker pointed out that as agreed upon by all members beforehand, issues not relating to the subject at hand could be discussed only after the question hour, and went ahead in taking up the questions listed for the day. Raising slogans and insisting that the Speaker ought to take up their demands first, Congress members moved into the well of the House and created a "ruckus".
While the Speaker was trying to persuade the protesters to maintain calm and decorum of the House and allow the proceedings to continue, the Minister for Legislative Affairs accused them of trying to draw political mileage by derailing the proceedings, like their Party members at national-level who had disrupted the proceedings of the Parliament session recently.
Stating that the government would not yield to such strong-arm tactics, Harish Rao moved a motion for the suspension of the members for the day after reading out their names. But the Speaker again appealed to the protesting members to resume their seats and allow the proceedings to continue, and reminded that the issue pertaining to the defection of Party members to TRS was pending with him and he would take a decision only at an appropriate time.
When the Congress members remained stubborn in their stand and sat on the floor, the Speaker put the motion for adoption and read out the names of the members who were being suspended, and asked them to leave the House immediately. As his appeal did not yield result, court Marshals were summoned to evict the suspended members.
The suspended Congress members were D K Aruna, J Geetha Reddy, Padmavathi Reddy, T Jeevan Reddy, Ramohan Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Vamsichand Reddy, Sampath Kumar and Chinna Reddy. Even as the members were being forcibly evicted, Vikramarka stay put at his seat and pointed out that his name was included although he did not storm into the well of the House. He said that this was a blatant violation of his privilege and rights.
Even as he stood his ground and refused to leave, the Marshals bodily lifted and evicted him. Taking strong objection to the manner in which the Congress members were suspended, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy claimed that the Speaker was acting in a partisan manner. Pointing out that Batti Vikramarka, though was not in the well of the House, was suspended and was also not given a change to give his explanation, Jana Reddy charged that the Speaker, instead of trying to pacify the members for the smooth conduct of the House, had acted hastily. In protest, Reddy staged a walk out.
After the eviction of the Congress members, the Speaker proceeded with the question hour. But trouble soon erupted as TDP member Revanth Reddy stood up and expressed his resentment over the manner in which the voice of the Opposition was being choked. He was "aghast" that the Speaker suspended the members even before hearing their arguments.
Raising his voice over the treatment meted out to the Opposition members, Revanth Reddy and another TDP member Sandra Venkata Veeriah rushed into the well and aggressively protested and entered into an argument with the Speaker. This provoked the Harish Rao to move another motion for suspension of the two TDP members. After the motion was adopted, the Speaker announced the suspension of the two TDP members, and got the Marshals to remove them from the House as the latter wouldn't budge.
BJP leader G Kishan Reddy, while pointing out that it was the prerogative of the Speaker to take action against members for disrupting the proceedings with the intent to uphold decorum and decency in the House, wanted an early decision with regard to the issue pertaining to defected members as being demanded by the Congress.