The state government looked keen on winding up in just three days, as it was not interested in replying to issues the BJP would raise.
Published Sep 06, 2022 | 5:21 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 06, 2022 | 5:22 PM
Telangana Legislative Assembly. (Supplied)
Day One of the three-day monsoon session of the Telangana Assembly ended tamely on Tuesday, 6 September, after the House paid tributes to former legislators who had passed away. The session will now meet again on 12-13 September.
The Business Advisory Committee (BAC), which met after the day’s session was adjourned, took a decision to this effect even as two of the three BJP legislators — M Raghunandan Rao and Eatala Rajender — took serious exception to not being invited.
BJP legislature party leader T Raja Singh was not present as he has been under preventive detention following his comments on Prophet Muhammad.
The state government appeared keen on winding up the show in just three days, as it was not very interested in replying to issues that the BJP was going to raise.
The session — which cannot be technically called monsoon session since the previous Budget Session had not been prorogued but by and large goes by that name — is being held against the backdrop of hectic preparations by the state and BJP independently marking the merger of the Hyderabad state into the Indian Union on 17 September, 1948.
The state government prefers to call it Telangana National Integration Day diamond jubilee celebrations, while the BJP calls it Telangana Liberation day, implying that the then Union Home Minister Sardar Valabhai Patel through Operation Polo had annexed the Hyderabad state, after liberating the people from the Nizams.
It is expected that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao might elaborate on the theme of the Telangana National Integration Day in one of the two remaining sessions of the Assembly. He might dwell on how the occasion became a watershed moment in the promotion of national integration.
The celebrations are expected to work as an antidote to the “communal” motive of the BJP in organising Liberation Day.
Nonplussed, the BJP is making elaborate arrangements to celebrate Telangana Liberation Day by inviting Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, and focusing on the tyranny of the Hindus by the Razakars of the Nizam in an attempt to polarise Hindus against the Muslims.
Meanwhile, the BJP MLAs, enraged over being excluded from the BAC meeting, slammed the TRS government.
Eatala Rajender said: “The TRS government has become very unilateral. The Speaker is acting like a robot, doing whatever the chief minister tells him. When the state was united, the Assembly session used to be held for 180 days and the budget session used to run up to 40 days.”
Raghunandan Rao also vented the TRS, demanding to know why it had kept the BJP out of the meeting. “When there was only one member in the Assembly, you used to call him for the meeting. Now we are three and yet you did not invite us. Tell us how many members should the BJP have to be invited to the Business Advisory Committee meeting?” he asked, lacing his words in sarcasm.
At the BAC meeting, when the Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) wanted the session to be held for a few more days, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said the government was pressed for time as the Telangana National Integration Day celebrations were going to take place from 16 September.
AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi pointed out that the number of days the Assembly was meeting was coming down gradually, to which the government said that though the number of days had come down, the number of hours in each day of the session had gone up.
As soon as the Assembly met in the morning, the House paid homage to Mallu Swarajyam, who took part valiantly in Telangana Armed Struggle and who was a legislator.
The Assembly also paid tribute to former MLA Paripati Janardhan Reddy. Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy moved the condolence motions in the House.
In the Legislative Council, issues of damage caused due to floods in Bhadrachalam were discussed.
TRS MLC Palla Rajeswarara Reddy said the credit for minimising damage and ensuring that there was no human loss of life went to the state government, despite the floods being unprecedented.
