Congress stalls Rajya Sabha on AP Special Status

​New Delhi: The Congress here on Monday forced repeated adjournments of the Rajya Sabha over the issue of Special Status to AP seeking immediate debate on the same.

Cut up with the ruling BJP over its tactical move stalling a voting in the RS on the issue, when the Private Member's Bill introduced by Congress MP KVP Ramachandra Rao on Friday last, the Congress changed its strategy and made it their main agenda and stalled the business in the Upper House.

Making amendments to the damage done to AP in the past (as described by a Congress MP), the party MPs finally made "AP wants justice" slogan their mainstay egged by the party high command to corner the ruling party.

Forcing repeated adjournments in the Rajya Sabha, Congress members even stormed into the well to protest the delay in according the Special Status to the state as promised in the AP State Reorganization Act, 2014.

Countering the Congress, the BJP then was pressing for a debate on the controversy surrounding the "paramount importance of security of Parliament and nation" in the wake of AAP MP Bhagwant Mann's act of filming in the House.

Accusing the BJP of deliberately burying the interests of AP and its people, Congress' Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh raised the issue leading to protests from the Treasury benches.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, who was in the chair, refused to budge pointing out that rules did not permit to do so as such a Bill could not be taken up now and that it was only proper that it was taken up on August 5.

But the unrelenting Congressmen who had brought the issue to the top of their agenda insisted that as the ruling party conspired to scuttle the interests of AP, the matter should be taken up first and the government itself must press it as its business in case the House was not willing to take it up except on the given day and time.

As 'AP wants justice" slogans rent the air, the members were seen standing in the well drowning the voice of others, a frustrated Kurien adjourned the House for the day.

This strategic move by the Congress caught the others by surprise and the TDP tried to justify their stand claiming "though the Congress had killed AP and was holding a condolence meeting," they were prepared to support it. TDP member C M Ramesh said his party would support the Congress "in this instance" though it was a belated move.

It was, in fact, the TDP which insisted on Friday last that the Congress should take up the issue of Special Status on Monday if it was sincere in its efforts to help the State. It had no inclination that the Congress would really do so on Monday.