E-Paper
TRS hits back at guv over outburst against KCR govt
Telangana endowments and forests minister A Indrakaran Reddy said that governor Tamilisai Soundarrajan had crossed all her limits by making wild allegations against the state government and even threatening to use her powers to see that the state assembly gets dissolved.
Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundarrajan’s outburst against the K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led state government for “insulting the governor’s office”, among other issues, evoked strong reactions from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Friday.
State endowments and forests minister A Indrakaran Reddy said that the governor had crossed all her limits by making wild allegations against the state government and even threatening to use her powers to see that the state assembly gets dissolved.
Reddy was reacting to a comment made by Tamilisai in New Delhi that had she used her powers and withheld her consent for the commencement of the Budget session for two more weeks, the state assembly would have been dissolved.
“It is unwarranted on the part of the persons holding Constitutional positions to make such remarks. She should remember what had happened to former governor Ramlal, who had dismissed the N T Rama Rao government in the combined Andhra Pradesh in August 1984,” the minister pointed out.
Ramlal, who had removed NTR as the chief minister and appointed Nadendla Bhaskar Rao instead, had to step down from the governor’s post due to public revolt.
Reddy said Tamilisai’s predecessor E S L Narasimhan had behaved in a dignified manner with the Telangana government, which had also reciprocated in the same way. “Tamilisai, too, should earn respect but not adopt a confrontationist attitude,” he said.
Rubbishing the governor’s allegations of the denial of protocol to her at Yadadri temple, the endowments minister said she had informed the temple authorities only 20 minutes before her arrival. “How can they make arrangements to receive her in such a short period? Yet, she was accorded a grand welcome by the chairman of Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority,” he said.
Reddy reiterated that she had been acting like a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) agent, as she had been the party president in Tamil Nadu before taking charge in Telangana.
On Thursday evening, TRS working president and state IT minister KT Rama Rao denied Tamilisai’s allegations that the state government was insulting her and the institution of the governor.
He said both the Telangana government and the TRS had immense respect for the governor’s office. “We never insulted Tamilisai and if she feels that way, it is her sheer imagination,” he said, adding that she, too, should play her role properly and behave like a governor.
Referring to her observation that the TRS government was disrespecting her for rejecting the nomination of TRS leader P Kaushik Reddy because of his political background, KTR said that Tamilisai, too, was a politician before taking the governor’s charge.
“How is it justifiable that a person with the political background can be appointed governor but the same norm can’t be applied for another to be nominated as MLC under governor’s quota?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy told reporters on Friday that the governor should use her discretionary powers and rein in the TRS government in the state.
“By virtue of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the Telangana governor has immense powers to take action against the government. The chief minister is trying to blame the governor to divert the attention of the people from his failures and also to overcome pressures within his family,” he said.
