Speaker can protect CM's chair - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad: Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy seems to be having nightmares after the resignation of 29 legislators. He has been holding daily meetings with his supporters and ministers to chalk out a strategy to survive and cou'nter Jagan Mohan Reddy's thr'eat.

However, he need not have to look any further but at his successor. Speaker N Manohar has many aces up his sleeve that can come handy if used with tact.

Being a leader from Tenali, Speaker Nadendla Manohar, may have traces of the ancient wisdom inherited from the soil that once nurtured the wisest and wiliest political craftsman of all time: Tenali Ramakrishna. Tenali, as we all know, had even saved the empire he served, Vijayanagara, at a critical junction by his wits.

In fact, talks among political circles is that if a minister, or for that matter, a MLA, wants to raise his political worth and ensure political longevity, he only has to write a resignation letter to the Speaker ' he will do the rest.

From Telangana MLAs to Telangana ministers to Jagan-supporting Congress MLAs, the Speaker has been showered with scores of resignation letters in the past couple of months.

Once when the T-ministers and MLAs resigned, he took off to an official overseas tour and when he came back he rejected the resignations. This has even led to the hilarious situation where he faced a 'missing' police complaint!

With Jagan-supporting Con'g'r'ess MLAs serving him a bye-notice, he has altered the game rule a bit and now says he will interview each of the 29 MLAs supporting Jagan Mohan Reddy to find out if the resignation was voluntary or under pressure or motivated.

Perhaps he is aware how Tenali Rama had saved his king from possible embarrassment (Refer to the story: Ramakrishna vs Rama Sastry). That would, sources calculate, take at least 45-60 days to make his decision known. Two months in such difficult times is a long time.

'That one is the best Speaker who speaks the least,' is a dictum usually accepted but rarely followed. Manohar could fall in the superlative category as he acts and speaks less.

Manohar has not yet come to the stage that a Speaker of Kerala Assembly had to face. On December 28, 1981 when K Karunakran was chief minister, Speaker AP Kurien relinquished the post and in his place was elected AC Jose.

There were 70 members each on the Treasury Bench and on the Opposition Front in the House of 140. For almost 75 days the government pulled on with the Speaker's casting vote!

And this was after the Speaker's honest bids to divide the Opposition. After that, an independent MLA who'd so far allied with the ruling front ended the misery by withdrawing support to the government.

Former Speaker Suresh Red'dy says it is the Speaker's discretion to decide whether to accept or reject the resignation. As far as the legislators and the Assembly are concerned the final authority will rest with the Speaker.

There is no obligation on the part of the speaker that he must clarify on the resignations, nor is there a time frame for it. Spea'ker's cond'uct of Assembly is also not to be called into question in a court of law.

That is why often detractors of a government call 'morality' into question. 'Mor'ally speaking the gove'rnment has no right to continue,' says constitutional expert N Ramachandra Rao.

'There is opposition from the Congress MLAs in the name of YSR Congress, Telangana MlAs cutting across the party lines have resigned for a separate state, then how can the gove'rnment continue?' he as'ked.

But when it comes to the number game or the magic figure, the gover'nment will easily come out with a slender margin, he stated. And here, the value of a shrewd Speaker comes out.

'Technically speaking the government is there, but morally it has to go,' he opined. On the resignation, Speaker is the final authority, he is sure.

But another senior lawyer sa'ys the Speaker may have technical support but if MLAs take it to the street, it does not work. Th'er'e'fore, there is always a Lakshman Rekha which may not be easily visible, but better not cross it.