Governor Speech Akin To School Essay: Congress

Deputy CLP leader in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the address of Governor E S L Narasimhan to the Telangana Legislature on Saturday as a "school essay".

Speaking to media persons at the Council's Media Point, Shabbir Ali said that the Governor's address was vague, and appeared to have been drafted in a hurry.

"There is no clarity on the government's achievements or goals. Being a learned man himself, the Governor should have asked the government to revise the speech which did not appear like a policy document," he said.

Shabbir Ali pointed out that there was no mention of giving 12% reservation to the Muslim community in the Governor's address.

"In the last budget speech, the government had deliberately given wrong statistics on the Muslim population to sabotage the promised Muslim reservation. In this year's Governor's address, it completely omitted the promise of 12% Muslim reservation. This exposes the real intentions of the TRS government. This is probably due to its growing proximity with the BJP government at the Centre," he said, adding that the government had dedicated just 16 lines in the 16-page address by the Governor, to minorities' welfare.

Similarly, the Governor had given clear indications that the TRS government would not fulfill the promise of giving 12% reservation to the Scheduled Tribes. Instead of stating that "it will provide reservation", the Governor said, "My government will strive to provide them 12% reservation in education and employment." He said that there was a lot to read between the lines. The TRS government was playing with words to escape from its promises, he alleged.

The Congress leader said that the government had failed to mention anything about the Telangana martyrs, the farmers' suicides or the payment of the remaining 75% dues towards the crop loan waiver scheme.

Speaking about the ruckus in the Assembly during the Governor's address, Shabbir Ali said that the behaviour of the TRS members was undemocratic and unparliamentary.

"The protest by Congress and TDP legislators was totally valid. So far, 11 MLAs and 14 MLCs of different parties have defected to the TRS. The Governor administered oath to TDP MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav without even asking him to resign from the post. This is a first-of-its-kind case in India where an opposition party MLA was inducted as a minister," he said.

Shabbir Ali alleged that the induction of Srinivas Yadav into the State Cabinet was in open violation of the Constitution of India under the Anti-Defection Law, and that the Governor, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Assembly Speaker S Madhusudan Chary and Council Chairman Swamy Goud had become a party to this violation.

He demanded that immediate action be taken against all the rebel legislators. (INN)