Hyderabad: Former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of suppressing all organs of democracy and stated that the state was heading to a serious constitutional crisis.
Speaking to the media on Monday at his residence, Mr Shabbir Ali, a senior Congress leader, said Mr Rao had been trying to supersede the legislature, the executive and even the judiciary and was trying to impose dictatorship where the people are not allowed to exercise their right to freedom of speech or express dissent against government’s wrong decisions.
Mr Shabbir Ali was kept under house arrest by the police since 6.30 am on Monday to prevent him from participating in the party’s dharna in front of Mr Rao’s camp office Pragathi Bhavan. He strongly condemned the arrest of thousands of party workers and leaders across the state to foil their attempt to lay siege to Pragathi Bhavan.
He said almost all Congress leaders were placed under house arrest early on Monday, and those who managed to leave their homes taken into custody and shifted to various police stations. He said that the Congress leaders wanted to assemble at Pragathi Bhavan to submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister seeking immediate resolution of the ongoing RTC strike. “KCR appears to be in no mood to even accept a memorandum on public issues,” he said.
The former leader of the Opposition in the Council alleged that Mr Rao had used the police to foil a simple protest in such an aggressive manner as if using the military to thwart a coup.
The Congress would intensify its protest and the strategy would be decided once TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy returns from the Huzurnagar byelection. He said the TPCC executive committee would meet to chalk out future plan of action.
