The Government Whip Dronamraju Srinivas on Wednesday termed the draft Telangana Bill as unconstitutional, and demanded the Centre and the Congress party to roll back their decision to carve out separate Telangana State.
Participating in the debate on the draft Telangana Bill in the Legislative Assembly, Srinivas said that earlier, the State Assembly has discussed the merits and demerits of several prestigious Bills like Land Reforms and SC/ST Sub-Plan. He pointed out that the President of India sent the draft Bill without mentioning its objectives. He questioned as to how can the members speak on the Bill without knowing its objectives.
Strongly objecting to the comments of Srinivas, the Chief Whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy rose on his feet and requested the Speaker for mike. He resumed his seat following the suggestion of the Speaker Nadendla Manohar not to obstruct the speech of the member.
Continuing his speech, Srinivas regretted that the draft Telangana Bill was also against the self-respect of the Telugu people. Saying there were no valid reasons for bifurcation of the State, he pointed out that Justice Srikrishna Committee had also observed that three regions in the State have developed equally. From Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy to Kiran Kumar Reddy, who hailed from Seemandhra and worked as Chief Minister of the State, none have shown discrimination against the Telangana region as claimed by the Telangana leaders. The Seemandhra people had backed the leadership of Marri Chenna Reddy and P V Narasimha Rao, who belongs to Telangana region, he maintained.
Stating that Seemandhra leaders have contributed a lot for development of Hyderabad city, he reminded that a Telangana leader warned the tongues of seemandhra people would be cut, if they claimed Hyderabad was theirs. The same Telangana leader has also asked even the Chief Minister to open a curry point in Hyderabad after bifurcation of the State. The TRS member even tried to attack him in the House for talking against bifurcation, he pointed out. The Telangana JAC leader Prof Kodanda Ram also gave a call to the Telangana people to boycott the products of the industries which were owned by seemandhra industrialists, he added.
He said that the hearts of Telangana people have broken with the Telangana legislators praising the Nizam rule. The seemandhra people, who came to Hyderabad, have not acted as feudalists and Doras; but they mingled with the Telangana people.
He questioned as to whether the letter of the TDP and the stand of the YSR Congress party were enough for the Centre to bifurcate the State. Though he belonged to the congress party, he would oppose the bifurcation decision of the Congress Working Committee, which was against the sentiments of seemandhra people. ‘We would remain traitors in history if we kept quiet’. He urged the BJP not to support the draft Telangana Bill, which was against the constitution.
The MIM members stormed into the well of the House strongly objecting to the mention of Nizam by the Government whip. They went back to their seats following the request from the Chair. The MIM legislator Pasha Quadri questioned as to what was the link between the draft Telangana Bill and the Nizam, to mention his name in the Bill.
T MEMBERS RAISE OBJECTION
When the TRS members raised objection over usage of an un-Parliamentary word by Srinivas, the Speaker assured them that such words would be automatically expelled from the records of the House. He also advised the members to be careful in choosing the words while speaking in the House.
A Congress legislator from Telangana, Anil, alleged that the comments made by Srinivas amounted to insulting the Telangana people.
TDP legislator from Telangana Errabelli Dayakar Rao said that Kiran Kumar Reddy government has rejected the permission to conduct meetings by Telangana organizations in Hyderabad and also arrested the Telangana activists who were going to the meetings conducted after getting permission from the High Court. But, the same government has been giving permission to seemandhra meetings in Hyderabad, which were being conducted opposing the bifurcation of the State. (NSS)