YSRCP pulling wool over people’s eyes

YSRC MPs’ charade at the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office at Delhi a few days ago was more Ostrich-like. The avian species is known to bury its head in the sand, assuming that no one is noticing it.

The occasion was to press for acceptance of their resignations which they had submitted on April 6, “deeply hurt” by the refusal of the Centre in granting special category status (SCS) to AP.

They, like all politicians, seemed to have thought that people are very naïve and that whatever they feed them, they would take it down their gullets hook, line and sinker.

The resignation spectacle was the acme of their agitation in Parliament to press the Centre for SCS to the state. Even as their leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy was demanding the SCS and blaming AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for not waking up early, but waiting too long till it was all over and then breaking up with the BJP, his MPs were doing their bit at Delhi, stalling the proceedings in Lok Sabha.

The five MPs – YV Subba Reddy, M Rajamoham Reddy, YS Avinash Reddy, V Varaprasada Rao and PV Mithun Reddy – marched to the Speaker and submitted their resignations after the budget session of Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die.

The people of AP are not new to resignation games that politicians choose to play in an attempt to convince them that they are dead serious about their commitment to their cause. If the ruling party does not want the Speaker to accept the resignation of an MLA or an MP, it would remain on the table gathering dust.

The Speaker would continue to counsel them, giving them time to reconsider their decision till cows come home. If the ruling party wants the Speaker to accept the resignation of a member of house, in a matter of few seconds, the letter gets the stamp of approval of the Speaker and out goes the legislator from the portals of the house.

In the case of the YSRC MPs too, the Speaker by giving them time to reconsider their decision only lent credence to the argument of Chandrababu Naidu that the Speaker in the first place did not want to accept their resignations. The MPs, on their part, made a show that they had persuaded her to accept them. This is because the YSRC and the BJP are on the same page and the MPs’ agitation is nothing but an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the people.

The legislative houses should be sacrosanct and after one is elected as Speaker, he or she ceases to be a member of the ruling party. In the interests of democracy, a Speaker should be partisan but partisan on the side of the Opposition.

But what happens in regular practice is to the contrary of what is expected of Speaker. Whether it is accepting resignation of a legislator or acting on disqualification petition filed a party against their MLA or MP for switching sides to the ruling party, the Speaker should act, without coming under the influence of the ruling party.