Members of Parliament from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) submitted a notice to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his statement in the Rajya Sabha on February 8 about the passing of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The notice called the PM’s statement “contemptuous” and claimed that the PM’s statement showed the Parliament Houses in bad light. “The statement attempts to show the Parliament Houses in the most bad and contemptuous manner, denigrating and demanding the procedures and proceedings of the House and its functioning. It is tantamount to finding fault with the Members of Parliament and the Presiding Officers for their conduct in the House,” read the notice.
PM Modi, in his statement, had slammed Congress over the manner in which it bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014. “The Congress has not spared its own leaders. Congress played an important role in Andhra Pradesh. What did they do with it? Those Andhra people, who elected these people to sit here, what did they do to them? They bifurcated the state. Mics were turned off, pepper sprays were let off, no discussion took place. Was this right?” Modi asked.
PM Modi’s statement questioned the procedures adopted by the presiding officers and management of the House during the passage of the Bill in Lok Sabha on February 20, 2014, and on February 21, 2014, in the Rajya Sabha. The Prime Minister’s comments evoked strong reactions from both the TRS and the Congress. Several TRS leaders took to social media to allege that the PM had insulted Telangana and they also sought an apology.
The notice of Privilege motion under Rule 187 was signed by TRS Rajya Sabha MPs K Keshava Rao who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, and Joginpally Santhosh Kumar, B Lingaiah Yadav and KR Suresh Reddy.
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