T Bill for Rajya Sabha tomorrow?

Hyderabad: The Union government is reportedly planning to introduce the T Bill in Parliament on Tuesday. It is likely to throw up a high drama in Parliament.

Rashtrapati Bhavan sources said that the T Bill had reached them on Sunday evening and the President would examine it on Monday and refer it to Parliament. If he gives the clearance by Monday evening then it would be introduced in Parliament on Tuesday.

However, TDP MP C M Ramesh and Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said here on Sunday that they had credible information that the government had decided to table the Bill in Parliament on Monday. It had flown a joint secretary-level officer from the Home Ministry to Maharashtra to get the endorsement of President Pranab Mukherjee for the Bill. They said if that was true, then it would amount to misuse of the Constitution and reducing the President to the level of a ‘rubber stamp.’ The government would like to bring it in Parliament on Monday itself in case the President gives his consent by Monday morning. A lot now depends on what the President would do now.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also likely to meet the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Monday and seek their support.

Ramesh said they had already served a notice to the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha under Rule 67 demanding that the Bill be first put to vote to decide whether it should be admitted or not.

Against the backdrop of this situation all eyes are now on the BJP. The saffron party has been sending mixed signals pushing the ruling party into a state of confusion. Party senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu was met by AICC leaders including Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel and Jairam Ramesh who called on him in the last two days to discuss the amendment to the T Bill.

He said in Nellore on Sunday that the BJP would take a decision on supporting the Bill only after going through the contents of the Bill. Naidu said that while the BJP was committed to separate State of Telangana, it cannot ignore the interests of the residuary state. Naidu said that his party had given some very important suggestions to the three leaders when they met him.

He said these suggestions were given before the GoM and the Cabinet met, but now it seemed that they had ignored most of the suggestions made by the BJP on making changes to the T Bill to protect the interests of Seemandhra and Telangana post-bifurcation. He, however, felt that the Centre appeared to have ignored majority of his suggestions.

However, his remarks have not gone down well with the party leaders in T region. Mahabubnagar MLA Y Srinivas Reddy said that they were shocked to see such comments and were left bewildered as to why the party was suddenly speaking more about the concerns of Seemandhra people. He said if the Bill did not get passed due to BJP’s stand then T region would be on boil once again.

Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar also alleged that the BJP had taken a U-turn. He said the BJP was doing it under pressure from TDP as it was moving closer to Chandrababu Naidu.

On the other hand, the Seemandhra Congress leaders exude confidence that the T Bill will not be adopted by Parliament. Union Minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao said he was confident that the Bill would not be adopted by Parliament at any cost. Interestingly, Congress rebel MP Sabbam Hari spoke the opposite and said the passage of the T Bill in Parliament was certain as Congress and BJP had come to an understanding with each other to split AP. He, however, said they would make all-out efforts to disrupt the proceedings of the Lok Sabha so as not to give any chance to the House to debate and pass the bill. However, he said, they would continue with their efforts to move the no-confidence and claimed that they have the support of 70 members. Endorsing his views, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao said that if Centre tried to introduce the Bill, the Parliament would witness “unprecedented scenes.” Lagadapati Rajagopal too reiterated that they would play ‘Kabbadi’ in Lok Sabha.