TDP MLAs bring whistles into the house, speaker suspends

AP Assembly speaker Thammineni Sitaram turned angry and aggressive on Tuesday and made castigating remarks against the opposition TDP MLAs for bringing whistles into the house. Two TDP MLAs, Gadde Ramamohan Rao and Eluri Sambasiva Rao brought whistles into the house and blew the whistle as the question hour was in progress.

The speaker took strong exception to the MLAs blowing the whistle when the house was in progress. They did so after the Speaker suspended four of their colleagues for the rest of the session. The speaker said that blowing whistles in the house was not an accepted practice and advised the members to behave.

He then announced the suspension of the two members from the house for the rest of the session which is scheduled to end on March 25.

Coming out from the house, TDP MLAs Gadde Ramamohan Rao and Eluri Sambasiva Rao said that they have been asking the speaker to give them a chance to speak in the house. They said that the speaker was denying their right to speak. They further said that the speaker and the ruling party had been bulldozing their requests since day one.

The TDP leaders said that their repeated requests to give them an opportunity to speak went into the deaf ears. “As there is no one to listen to us and the house is not giving time for us, we blew the whistles to draw the attention of the house and accept our demand,” the TDP members said.

The TDP MLAs said that they would continue to hold protests outside the Assembly and tell the people how undemocratic the Assembly was. They further said that they were not given the chance to speak in the house since day one of the budget session which started on March 9.