Marri Sashidhar Reddy, a senior Congress leader and former MLA from Sanathnagar, Hyderabad, leveled a serious charge against Governor ESL Narasimhan for his alleged constitutional impropriety.
He cautioned Governor against becoming another Ram Lal.
According to Reddy, governor failed on two counts in upholding the constitutional values in Telangana.
- He administers of oath office to an MLA who was facing anti-defection charges
- He is allowing the minister to continue to hold office even after six month instead asking him to face elections.
Ram Lal, was Governor, when NT Ramarao was toppled by Nadendla Bhaskhar Rao, NTR’s finance ministery,in a coup of sorts, way back in August 1984. There was a hue and cry against Ram Lal’s constitutional impropriety in removing NTR and allowing Nadendla form government when the former was in US undergoing treatment. Later, buckling under the pressure from people across the country, Ram Lal was removed by the centre.
Sashidhar Reddy accused of Narasimhan of same constitutional impropriety for administering oath of office and secrecy to TDP MLA Talasani Srinivasa Yadav as a minister in KCR’s cabinet. Incidentally, Talasani wrested the Sanathnagar seat from Sashidhar Reddy in 2014. But he defected to TRS and a petition seeking his disqualification under anti-defection law is under consideration of the speaker. The question Sashidhar Reddy was asking that,”can a governor ignore the constitutional status of a defected MLA and administer oath of office?”
“Governor was aware that Talasani was elected to Assembly as TDP candidate in 2014. He was inducted into cabinet on December 16, 2014 and completed six months,” he said in a letter addressed to the governor.
“You administered,” he said in the letter, “oath of office to Talasani as a minister in the government run by TRS, which is not the political party through with which he won as a legislator.”
“Instead of protecting and upholding the constitution, you are protecting the unconstitutional acts and activities of the Telangana government. People of the state still remember the infamous Governor Ram Lal and feel that, hopefully, we should not see another one in the making.
(jnr)
