Telangana Bill: Uncertainty Looms Over Its 'Safe' Passage

By M H Ahssan | INNLIVE

CLEAR PICTURE The sordid 'Pepper Terror' Lagadapati Rajagopal gassing sequence in the Lok Sabha on February 13 has created a fresh cloud of uncertainty about the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill. 

While Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde says that it is now the property of the House, as it has been introduced and tabled, rival parties, led by the leader of the Opposition in the Lower House Sushma Swaraj, dispute it. Her complaint is that it was not listed on the agenda circulated.
"Under the normal procedure, at the end of question hour, the first item on the agenda is to lay papers listed in the order on the table of the House. This was not done," insists Swaraj. The charge of the opposition is that all rules and norms were given the go by as the government went ahead with the introduction of the Bill hastily to suit its political expediency. 

On the rules for the introduction of a Bill, the view is that it is the Speaker's discretion to decide on the order of the agenda to be followed for the day. So, there are several, including the TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, who echo Shinde's assertion. But the chaos in which pepper gas was sprayed, MPs rained blows, a glass table top was broken and a microphone wrenched off its base, forcing the shift of four MPs to hospital, began moments before Shinde rose to introduce the contentious Bill.

If the issue of introduction itself becomes a matter of debate, the uncertainty over the Telangana Bill will deepen when the Lok Sabha meets for what is possibly its last week on February 17. The BJP appears to have made a striking shift in its stand and decided not to help the ruling Congress in its attempt to get the Bill passed though the party chief Rajnath Singh reiterates that the BJP is not opposed to the idea of Telangana.

With the Lok Sabha, scheduled to end its term on February 21, the Congress faces gnawing anxiety about making the law on the bifurcation plans, leave alone the actual process on the ground, before the General Elections. It is a race against time. Even if the Congress manages to get the Bill passed by a voice vote, the quick fix method used by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to pass a resolution rejecting the draft Bill in the legislative assembly on January 30, there is a hurdle the ruling party faces in pushing the Bill through the Rajya Sabha.

Paucity of time for the Rajya Sabha to consider and pass the Bill as well as the BJP's technical objection about the introduction and pre-condition about the House being in order is likely to come in the way of a smooth passage. "We have time till February 21, when Parliament would adjourn sine die, wait till then and see," says the optimistic Kiran Reddy, hopeful of the Bill being stalled. If the government fails to ensure its passage, other votaries of a Samaikya Andhra (United Andhra) will emerge winners. And the 'Pepper Terror' may well be the new hero of Seemandhra.