A House in gross disorder: Abuses, insults and derogatory language mar Budget Session of Telangana Assembly

In the 9 days that the Assembly met, spanning over 65.3 hours, including for one record 17 hour session till 3.15 am, speeches by 132 members and five bills passed apart from two short discussions, meaningful discussions were rare, with the Government refusing discussions even on topics like the much hyped job calendar.

Hyderabad: Seldom has Telangana witnessed its Legislative Assembly in such disorder, with chaos, abuses and insults, derogatory comments and Opposition MLAs not being allowed to speak. That was not all.

In the 9 days that the Assembly met, spanning over 65.3 hours, including for one record 17 hour session till 3.15 am, speeches by 132 members and five bills passed apart from two short discussions, meaningful discussions were rare, with the Government refusing discussions even on topics like the much hyped job calendar. Those who protested were shuffled out by marshals, with veiled threats of being suspended being handed out by ruling party members, including by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

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In fact, former Minister Vemula Prashant Reddy was not too far from the truth on Saturday when he, along with Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, said the budget session was blatantly used to stifle the voice of the BRS and to threaten and offend Opposition members. Unbecoming moments and mentions that were highly contentious in nature were too many, with the Congress undermining the dignity and decorum of the house as never before, they said.

AIMIM Floor Leader and Chandrayangutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi too had said the same in the House itself, when he remarked that in his 25-year-long career as an MLA, never had he seen such brazen violations of the norms of a House in session.

There was no dearth of misinformation and false narratives either. In fact, Revanth Reddy appeared to be ‘leading from the front’ in this aspect, when he said on the floor of the House that the previous BRS government had signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre agreeing to installing smart meters to agriculture pump-sets. However, he was silent on the fact that agriculture services were excluded from the installation of smart meters under the Uday Scheme launched by the Centre, for which the State had signed the agreement. BRS MLA T Harish Rao had pointed out this the same day.

Several members had also complained that the agenda was sent to them very late, some times at 1 am, with even that agenda being changed without notice the next day. Prashant Reddy and Kaushik Reddy also pointed out that the session did not discuss key issues such as the Congress promise for paying Rs.4000 as Asara pension and assistance of Rs.2500 for women under the Mahalakshmi scheme. Neither was the Rs.4,000 monthly allowance for jobless youth discussed. Apart from passing remarks, there were no substantial discussions on budget allocations for important schemes like Rythu Bharosa/Rythu Bandhu or Dalit Bandhu. Even those remarks were just to target the previous BRS government.

For the unemployed, it was with bated breath that they waited for the job calendar. However, the same was released in the Assembly, but with no number of jobs specified and with just dates of when recruitment tests would be notified or conducted. Earlier, the Chief Minister had also claimed in the Assembly, apart from in public meetings, to have given 30,000 jobs, but kept quiet that he had just handed over appointment letters for posts that were notified and recruitment process completed by the previous BRS regime.

Apart from these, the most disturbing aspect of the session was the lack of decorum. If women MLAs were offended in the house by both the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister making remarks that were least justified, their male counterparts saw Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender openly threatening to skin them alive! Nagender had in fact tried to lunge forward towards Kaushik Reddy, with a potential physical attack being avoided only because other Congress MLAs pulled Nagender back. Unfortunately, neither did the Chief Minister nor the Speaker reprimand him, with the Speaker just saying that Nagender’s remarks would expunged. These were not just ‘remarks’, but abuses which the turncoat MLA blatantly tried to blame the Hyderabadi lingo for. Even it was part of local lingo, perhaps used in street arguments, whether the same street language can be used in the Legislative Assembly remains the mute question.