Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday justified initiating severe action against Congress MLAs and thanked Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary for acting tough and expelling two Congress members. He said it was needed was needed to uphold the dignity and decorum of the House.
He was categorical that the government would not tolerate disruptive forces inside and outside the House at any cost.
Mr Rao said the violent incidents in the House were pre-planned and the government had adv-ance information of this due to which it deployed several marshals, or else the situation could have turned ‘more dangerous’.
“The justification that we didn’t mean to attack the Council Chairman, but the Governor, is deplorable," he told the House.
The CM said the Congress had been indulging in vicious campaign against him, his health and his government.
“They started demolis-hing our party’s flag posts and burning my effigies within five days of my assuming office as CM. Why this intolerance? They could not di-gest TRS coming to power. In the subsequent elections held for 2014, they lost even deposits, which made them more frustrated. They created rumours about my health saying I am going to the US for treatment. I tolerated all this. But their latest act of attacking the Governor and the Council Chairman deserves stringent punishment,” Mr Rao said.
He asked why was the-re the need to protest when the government was ready to debate on any issue for any number of days in the Assembly. “If they have any objection to the Governor's speech, they can raise it during the debate in the House.”
They can lodge their protest in a democratic manner in various forms. But resorting to attacks is not acceptable,” the CM said.
Referring to Opposition criticism of suspending K. Jana Reddy though it was claimed that he had remained quite, Mr Rao said, "We know what Jana Reddy did. We have all the reports about his role in this episode based on which he has been suspended. We have utmost respect for him.”
