Even as the political fight for and against Telangana State enters its last and decisive week on Monday all eyes will be on Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker N Manohar. The Speaker has to decide whether Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s notice to reject and return the draft of State Reorganisation Bill to the President should be allowed or not.
However, in a dramatic last-ditch effort, in order to stall the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Reddy served a notice to the Speaker, seeking his permission to move a Government resolution to reject the draft Bill. Chief Minister’s move enraged many party leaders and workers who shouted slogans against him on Sunday when he visited the party headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad, to participate in Republic Day celebrations. Slogans like — “Kiran Kumar Reddy Go Back” — rented the air and tension prevailed as the Telangana leaders and workers vented their anger against the Chief Minister. However the police intervened to control the situation.
Meanwhile, a notice under Section 77 of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the AP Assembly was served to the Speaker by legislative Affairs Minister S Shailajanath. A similar notice was served to AP legislative Council Chairman R Chakrapani by the leader of the House and Minister C Ramachandraiah. However, the main Opposition, Telugu Desam Party has also served a similar notice seeking permission to introduce a resolution in the House for rejecting and returning the draft bill.
The notice given by the Chief Minister as the leader of the House reads, “The House while rejecting the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013, resolves to request the President not to recommend the Bill to be introduced in the Parliament, as its seeks to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh without any reasons or basis”. Both the Houses were likely to witness a chaos during the meeting as the late swinger from the Chief Minister has left the Telangana supporters, including many Ministers and Congress MlAs, seething with anger.
The Speaker was also likely to summon the meeting of Business Advisory Committee to discuss the issue and decide whether such a resolution on a draft Bill, referred by the Parliament, can be allowed. If he takes a decision in favour of the resolution, it will be a big setback for the Congress leadership. But it will not change the situation on the ground as the Parliament can pass the Bill forming the Telangana State without State Assembly supporting such an idea.
Congress member of the legislative council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that such a notice was untenable in the law. “Normally notices under Section 77 were allowed only on the State Government Bill and not on a Bill referred by the President of India”, he said terming the Chief Minister’s move as wrong. Moreover a ten days notice is also required for moving a resolution under Section 77, the experts pointed out.
Several Telangana Congress leaders and Ministers have reacted strongly to the Chief Minister’s move. They wrote a letter to the Governor ESl Narasimhan, Speaker N Manohar and Council Chairman Chakrapani against allowing any such resolution in the House. They pointed out that the Chief Minister was proposing the resolution without discussing it in the Cabinet. The sudden move by the Chief Minister has also rattled the Congress high command, whose writ was being repeatedly challenged by the Seemandhra leaders.
AICC General Secretary, in charge of AP affairs, said that the Chief Minister has served the notice to the Speaker and he will take a decision in the Business Advisory Committee. “If there is something unconstitutional in the Bill as the Chief Minister is saying, there are ways to find a solution”, he said. “But there is nothing new in what the Chief Minister was saying”. It is good that 80 per cent of the MlAs have taken part in the debate”, he said.
The Congress as well as the Opposition leaders were surprised that Chief Minister chose to move the resolution notice almost a month after the Bill was introduced in the House and a large number of members had participated in the debate. “The Chief Minister has not only sought to make the entire exercise fructuous but also closed the door of further debate questioning the constitutional validity of the draft Bill”, a senior leader of Congress said.
Similarly the leaders of Telugu Desam, CPI and the BJP also questioned the Chief Minister’s move. “if the Chief Minister knew that the draft bill was full of flaws and violated the provisions of the constitution why he kept quiet when the bill was being introduced”, questioned the TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu.
Senior leader of the BJP M Venkaiah Naidu said that the Chief Minister’s action itself was unconstitutional. He found fault with the Chief Minister’s statement that the bill was full of mistakes. “What was he doing till now”, he asked. He told the reporters in Nellore on Sunday that the BJP will decide whether to support the bill or not, only after going through the bill, after it was introduced in the Parliament. State CPI Secretary K Narayana said that the Chief Minister himself was violating the constitution on the issue of Telangana Bill.
“Didn’t he know about the flaws in the Telangana Bill on the day it was introduced in the AssemblyIJ Were his eyes shut thenIJ”, he asked. A similar angry reaction came from within the ruling party. Telangana Ministers and leaders met at the residence of IT Minister Ponnala lakshmaiah to prepare a counter strategy, while Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha alleged that the Chief Minister was hatching a conspiracy to stop the formation of the Telangana State. “He is a big conspirator but he will not succeed”, Rajanarasimha said.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti was also busy in countering the move. Its floor leader E Rajinder met the former Supreme Court Justice B Sudarshan Reddy in Hyderabad to discuss the draft bill provisions. On the other hand the Seemandhra Ministers came out in full support of the Chief Minister. One of them TG Venkatesh said that rejecting and sending the bill was the only solution.
“This bill is incomplete and full of loopholes and it was not acceptable to the people of Seemandhra region”, he said.erly