Hyderabad: Lone BJP MLA Mr Raja Singh’s threat to not take oath from a pro-tem Speaker belonging to the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is all theatrics to send a message to his constituency, Goshamahal. After all he can even take oath a week or 10 days later when a Speaker is elected.
MLAs are administered oath by a pro-tem speaker to enable them to elect the speaker. The pro-term Speaker is the seniormost member of the House, in the present case Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, 70, of the AIMIM. The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled for January 17.
In a video posted on this Facebook page, Mr Singh had said that he will not go to the Assembly to take oath. “I will not take oath in front of a Speaker belonging to ‘that’ (MIM) party, which talks about finishing off Hindus and won’t say ‘Vande Mataram’ or ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. I won’t take oath in front of a Speaker from such a dirty party.”
“If he does not take oath from the pro-term Speaker, he will not be part of the process to elect a Speaker,” Professor K. Nageshwar said. “But once the Speaker and deputy speaker are elected, he can take oath. There is no hard and fast rule that the oath has to be taken along with all members of the Assembly. It can be taken after a few days also.”
Political analysts feel Mr Singh is just trying to send a message to his constituency that he is sticking to his ground. There was no hue and cry when a BJP member administered oath of office to Mr Asaduddin Owaisi as a Lok Sabha MP.
The Telangana state Assembly has not faced a situation like this before. Experts said Mr Singh will be considered an MLA only after he takes oath. So, he has to take it sooner or later.
