Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu clarified that the high court has only asked the Speaker to announce the schedule within four weeks and the deadline is not for taking a decision. He also pointed out that the 10th Schedule of the Constitution has not set any deadline for the Speaker to decide on disqualification petitions.
Published Sep 12, 2024 | 1:39 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 12, 2024 | 6:50 PM
Revanth Reddy. (X)
The Telangana Congress seems unruffled by the direction of the Telangana High Court that the Speaker should announce the schedule for hearings within four weeks in regard to the petitions for disqualification of BRS MLAs pending before him.
Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu, speaking to reporters, clarified that the high court has only asked the Speaker to announce the schedule within four weeks and the deadline is not for taking a decision.
He also pointed out that the 10th Schedule of the Constitution has not set any deadline for the Speaker to decide on disqualification petitions. By implication, it means the Speaker can take as much time as he wants, he said.
The 10th Schedule, known as “Provisions as to Disqualification on Ground of Defection’, was inserted by the 52nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution in 1985.
Sridhar Babu’s reading of the high court direction has given a sneak peek into the thinking of the Congress that it does not want to give up that easily.
The Congress leader also brought up the issue of whether the judiciary could set deadlines for the legislature. He said a discussion has also been going on as to what extent the judiciary could extend its jurisdiction over the legislature and whether, in the first place, it can, at all.
Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, whose disqualification petition is also pending before the Speaker for joining the Congress, said the high court direction was given by a single judge.
“We can go in for an appeal before the division bench or even move the Supreme Court. We are consulting legal experts,” he said, adding that high courts and the Supreme Court had given conflicting verdicts in the past. He said he favoured a final direction by the Constitutional bench to settle the issue of defections once and for all.
Ever since the high court gave the direction to the speaker, the BRS has been on overdrive, calling Congress to account for poaching its MLAs without any regard for the Constitution.
The party has trained its guns, not at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy but at party supremo Rahul Gandhi himself, for allowing defections in Telangana while making a show that he was committed to upholding the principles of the Constitution.
The BRS, intending to strike while the iron is still hot, made a representation to the Assembly secretary V Narasimha Charyulu on Wednesday, 11 September, urging him to place the file relating to the disqualification of the MLAs before the Speaker as directed by the high court.
BRS MLAs KP Vivekanand and Padi Kaushik Reddy, after making the representation, lashed out at Sridhar Babu for speaking in support of defections.
After the migration of BRS MLAs to the Congress began after the Assembly elections in December last year, the pink party, in an attempt to protect its flock of MLAs from relentless and ruthless pounding by the Congress, has been trying to instil fear of losing membership of the Assembly if they cross-over to the grand old party.
After the Speaker remained unmoved by the disqualification petitions filed by the BRS, the party knocked on the doors of the high court which gave the latest direction.
In fact, the BRS has been successful in halting the migration of the MLAs to Congress after it began going to town that it would spare no efforts to ensure that all those who defected would be disqualified.
It kept on saying that since there was a groundswell of support for the BRS in the wake of the “poorly implemented guarantees,” its nominees were sure to win in the by-elections.
As no BRS MLA is ready to face a by-election, those who had been toying with the idea of jumping over the fence had deferred their decision. After 10 BRS legislators crossed the point of no return and joined the Congress, the deluge from the BRS camp suddenly stopped.
The high court direction has now come as a shot in the arm for the BRS and it is more or less certain that no BRS MLA would jump ship with the Sword of Damocles hanging precariously on those who had already joined the Congress camp.
BRS described the high court’s direction as a slap on the face of Congress for shedding all its values and admitting the BRS MLAs. BRS working President KT Rama Rao said that before long there would be by-elections in all the segments where the sitting BRS MLAs had defected to the Congress.
Congress, obviously to throw a douche of cold water at the BRS, began resurrecting the old ghosts. Legislative Affairs Minister Sridhar Babu recalled how the BRS had engineered defections of the Opposition MLAs when it was in power during its first term from 2014 to 2018 and in the second term from 2018 to 2023 and therefore it had no right to question the Congress on political morals.
As if to demonstrate that the party was not deterred by the high court direction, the Congress has appointed Arekapudi Gandhi, who abandoned the BRS and joined the Congress recently, as the chairman of the Public Account Committee. The decision to appoint him indicated the Congress’ resolve to hit back at the BRS for its continuous campaign of calumny against it.
As soon as the BRS raised questions over the appointment of Gandhi, the Congress said Gandhi was a BRS MLA and that it had followed the tradition of appointing an Opposition member as the chairman of the PAC.
The Congress leaders looked amused as the BRS kept asking what happened to the BRS recommendation of T Harish Rao to the PAC. As the BRS could get three members into the PAC, it had nominated Harish Rao, Gangula Kamalakar and Vemula Prashanth Reddy but suddenly Gandhi was posted as the chairman of the PAC.
“If Gandhi were to be BRS MLA as claimed by the Congress, had the party recommended his name? What has happened to the nomination of Harish Rao?” Prashanth Reddy asked.
But it is a clear case of Revanth Reddy settling scores with the BRS leaders. He did not want Harish Rao to head the PAC as its chairman. He did not want Harish Rao to question every decision taken regarding the allocation of funds to projects.
The PAC would have the power to audit the state government’s accounts, and this appears to be one of the reasons why Revanth Reddy deftly eased him out of the committee and brought Gandhi in.
In an interesting development, the chief minister left for Delhi on Wednesday night to confer with the party’s high command on possible Cabinet expansion.
The party may use the occasion to ask him to explain why he had appointed turncoat Gandhi as PAC chairman, in a departure from tradition and also the implications of the high court’s direction to the speaker.
BRS has been successful in landing the Congress in embarrassment by questioning how it could make Gandhi the PAC chairman while allowing KC Venugopal readily to accept the same position in Parliament from the NDA. In this political see-saw battle, it remains to be seen who will have the upper hand.
(Edited by N Venugopal)
