Hyderabad: Tension prevailed on the first day of assembly monsoon session began on Monday, when there was a scuffle between the police and BRS MLAs and MLCs, who tried to enter into assembly premises by wearing black T-shirts with slogans printed against Congress 1,000 days ruling and unkept promises. But the police did not allow them to enter the assembly and took them into custody.
Harish Rao alleged that the govt prevented them from speaking in the assembly about the six guarantees, 420 promises, pensions, fee reimbursement, and the problems faced by farmers, teachers and govt employees. He claimed that the Congress govt was afraid that its failures during 1,000 days in office would be exposed and therefore deployed the police against BRS members.
BRS condemned the police behaviour and said “Police’s inhuman behavior towards former minister and MLA Sabita Indra Reddy at the assembly! The BRS leaders said they would take up the issue with the assembly speaker. He warned that those responsible would not be spared,” he said. Harish Rao also questioned whether the BJP and Congress had entered into a “match-fixing” arrangement to allow only a token discussion on issues such as GO 22-A and fee reimbursement while keeping the principal opposition party out of the proceedings.
In the scuffle, BRS working president KT Rama Rao , deputy floor leader T Harish Rao, other MLAs and ex-ministers G Jagadish Reddy, P Sabita Indra Reddy, Sunita Laxma Reddy, and others received minor injuries. In the confrontation, Sabitha Indra Reddy alleged that the police personnel pulled her hair. Sunita Laxma Reddy alleged that women police dragged her saree and broke down over the police behaviour. BRS leaders suffered minor injuries during the incident. The party leaders claimed that KTR’s hand and face were scratched, MLC Yadav Reddy injured his right toe, MLA Rajasekhar Reddy’s leg was bruised, and Sanjay sustained an injury to his hand. Police dragging her away brutally by her hair without even considering that she is a woman MLA! Is this the respect the Congress govt gives to women? As the police prevented them from entering into assembly with T-shirts, BRS leaders Harish Rao, Bandari Laxma Reddy, Sudhir Reddy and others removed their shirts and tried to enter with banians and pants. They were taken into custody and shifted them to Telangana Bhavan. Speaking at the Telangana Bhavan Harish Rao questioned the govt’s actions and termed the incident as black day in the history of Telangana. “Is this a legislative assembly or a Kaurava Sabha? Will you pull the sarees of women MLAs? Will you use the police against elected representatives? Will you grab MLAs by the neck and throw them out? What kind of govt is this, CM are you running a police state?,” he asked. He warned the BRS would not spare the police who pulled the sarees of our women members,” he warned. He specifically alleged that police personnel pulled the saree of Sunitha, pressed the throat of Sabitha, and knocked Jagadish Reddy to the ground.