BRS women MLAs demand Revanth Reddy’s apology, resignation over police high-handedness
BRS women legislators demanded an apology from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his resignation as Home Minister over alleged police high-handedness outside the Telangana Assembly, accusing police of manhandling them and questioning women’s safety under the Congress government.
Hyderabad: BRS women legislators on Monday demanded that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy publicly apologise for the police high-handedness against them outside the Assembly and resign as Home Minister. They condemned the incident and raised questions over safety of women in the Congress government’s “Indiramma Palana” (Indira Gandhi’s rule).
Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan here, BRS Legislature Party deputy leader and former Home Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy termed the incident heinous. She said police acted at the Chief Minister’s direction. She said the black T-shirts worn by BRS legislators contained no objectionable words and only demanded implementation of the government’s promises during its 1,000-day rule.
Sabitha alleged that police dragged her by the throat and hair and pulled former Minister V Sunitha Laxma Reddy by her saree. She questioned the alleged double standards, referring to Congress Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi wearing T-shirts with photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani in Parliament, but the BRS legislators not being allowed to showcase similar protest.
Sunitha Laxma Reddy called the incident as a dark day in the history of Telangana Assembly which was unprecedented even in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. She stated that police pressed the throats of women legislators without any regard for them being elected representatives and women, despite standing aside. She said the incident amounted to an attack on women across Telangana and demanded a public apology from the Chief Minister.
MLA Kova Lakshmi alleged that the police manhandled several BRS leaders, including BRS working president KT Rama Rao and BRSLP deputy leader T Harish Rao. She said the BRS legislators wore black T-shirts only to seek implementation of the government’s promises. She stated that police also behaved rudely with the media.
