Governor's speech is like School Essay: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad: Deputy CLP leader in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has described the address of Governor ESL Narasimhan to the Telangana Legislature on Saturday as 'School Essay'.

Speaking to media persons at Council's Media Point, Shabbir Ali said that the Governor's address was vague and appears to have been drafted in a hurry. "There is no clarity on government's achievements or goals. Being a learned man himself, the Governor should have asked the government to revise the speech which did not appear like a policy document," he said.

Shabbir Ali pointed out that there was no mention of giving 12% reservation to Muslim community in the Governor's address. "In the last budget speech, the government deliberately mentioned wrong statistics on Muslim population to sabotage Muslim reservation. In this year's Governor's address, it completely omitted the promise of 12% Muslim reservation. This exposes the real intentions of TRS Government. This is probably due to the TRS Government's growing proximity with the BJP Government at the Centre," he said adding that the government has dedicated just 16 lines in 16-page Governor's address to the minorities' welfare.

Similarly, the Governor gave clear indications that the TRS Government would not fulfill the promise of giving 12% reservation to Scheduled Tribes. Instead of stating that "it will provide reservation", the Governor said, "My government will strive to provide them 12% reservation in education and employment." He said there was a lot to read between the lines. The TRS Government is exploiting the words to escape from its promises.

The Congress leader said that the government failed to mention anything about Telangana martyrs, farmers' suicides or the payment of remaining 75% dues towards crop loan waiver scheme.

Speaking about the ruckus in the Assembly during the Governor's address, Shabbir Ali said that the behaviour of TRS members was undemocratic and unparliamentary. "The protest by Congress and TDP legislators was totally valid. So far, 11 MLAs and 14 MLCs of different parties have defected to the TRS. The Governor administered oath to TDP MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav without even asking him to resign from the post. This is first of its kind case in India where an opposition party MLA was inducted as minister," he said.

Shabbir Ali alleged that the induction of Srinivas Yadav in the State Cabinet was in open violation of Constitution of India under Anti-Defection Law and the Governor, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Assembly Speaker S Madhusudan Chary and Council Chairman Swamy Goud have become a party to this violation. He demanded that immediate action be taken against all the rebel legislators.