Won’t consider Bill as tabled: Parties

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj on Thursday declared that the Telangana Bill had not been introduced in Parliament. She said that as soon as the Lok Sabha session commenced, pandemonium broke out in Parliament and she did not see the Bill being moved in the Lok Sabha. “No more talks with the Government. We will not talk to the Government in any form on Telangana,” she declared. The BJP strategy now is to focus more on the split within the Congress between the Seemandhra and the Telangana factions, and attack it for its inability to find an amicable solution.

Later in the evening, BJP President Rajnath Singh reiterated the stated position of the party that they were committed to creation of Telangana, and the government should bring the Bill and the party would support its passage. Sushma Swaraj, however, has been insisting that the Bill cannot be passed in the din.

Leaders of BJP, SP, BJD, CPI and Trinamool Congress met Lok Sabha Speaker, saying they would not accept that the Telangana Bill was introduced. “Whatever happened today crossed all limits. It is not only unfortunate but shameful and Congress is responsible for it,” Swaraj told reporters.

“The ruckus started before the speaker came, Congress MPs clashed and were at blows. And then something was sprayed... MPs started coughing,” she said. “I feel it was a part of the design. Government wanted ruckus...” She said the Bill was not introduced as long as she was in the House. “Because until I was in the House, they had not even read an ‘I’ of introduction. I was in the House for a long time. I wanted to sit even after they used the spray, but marshals told me the gas can be harmful and I should leave. I don’t know when the Speaker came, when the Bill was introduced,” she said.

The Leader of Opposition also questioned why the Bill was not mentioned in the list of business. “All I can say is as per Parliament tradition; papers are laid at noon, after that legislative business is taken up. Papers were not laid because it would take time. Some people had given notices to oppose the introduction. It was not in the list of business, there was no supplementary agenda,” she said.