Tata Madhu row, T-shirt ban mar Telangana Assembly’s stormy Day 1

Hyderabad: The first day of the Telangana Assembly’s Monsoon Session was overshadowed by scenes of chaos outside the House, where police stopped Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators from entering because they were wearing black T-shirts, triggering scuffles, injuries and the detention of the party’s top leadership even before proceedings began.

BRS Working President KT Rama Rao (KTR), former minister T Harish Rao and several other MLAs and MLCs arrived at the Assembly gate wearing black T-shirts printed with Telugu-language slogans marking “1,000 days” of what the party called unfulfilled Congress government promises. Police told them they could not enter the premises in T-shirts carrying political messages. The stand-off degenerated into shoving, pushing and heated exchanges, and Harish Rao and other leaders eventually pulled off their shirts in protest before being bundled into a police van and taken to Telangana Bhavan.

BRS said KTR, former minister G Jagadish Reddy and MLA V Sunitha Laxma Reddy suffered minor injuries. Sunitha Laxma Reddy alleged she was pulled by her saree and trampled on the feet, while former minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy alleged she was pulled by her hair and dragged away. BRS MLAs Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Kova Lakshmi and Madhavaram Krishna Rao staged a sit-in at the gate against what the party called high-handed police conduct.

The episode invites an obvious comparison the BRS was quick to draw. KTR pointedly asked why his party’s legislators could not wear black T-shirts to register a protest when Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has worn black to Parliament on more than one occasion without being stopped.

The comparison, however, is not quite apples-to-apples: Gandhi and Congress MPs who have staged such protests in Delhi have typically worn plain black shirts, kurtas or armbands, with no printed text on the garments. The BRS T-shirts, by contrast, carried a printed Telugu slogan attacking the Congress government directly, which is the distinction the police cited in stopping them. That did not stop KTR from demanding the Speaker issue written instructions if there is, in fact, a rule against such clothing, and he has since called for statewide protests over the incident.

BJP disrupts Telangana Assembly session

Inside the House, it was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that disrupted proceedings, with its MLAs raising slogans within minutes of the Assembly convening and forcing a 15-minute adjournment. The BJP demanded an immediate debate on the inclusion of private citizens’ land in a prohibitive list under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, which bars registration and other transactions on such land. Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar appealed to the BJP members to let the House begin its business, but they did not relent.

Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu said the government was ready for a debate on the issue, and it was later agreed that a short discussion would be taken up at a Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.

Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy used the opportunity to go on the offensive against both opposition parties, accusing the BRS and the BJP of “match-fixing” in the Assembly. He questioned BJP leaders over delays in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged Rs 1 lakh crore Kaleshwaram scam, saying the state government had sought the probe from the Centre a year ago.

Row over MLC Tata Madhu’s comments

Separately, a fresh row broke out over remarks by BRS MLC Tata Madhu on the Speaker. Tata Madhu allegedly said BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) was staying away from the Assembly because he did not want to have to address Gaddam Prasad Kumar, Telangana’s first Dalit Speaker, as “sir.” Congress ministers and MLAs, including Panchayat Raj Minister D Seethakka and MLA Medipally Satyam, reacted sharply, with Seethakka demanding that Tata Madhu’s membership be cancelled and that KCR apologise.

Congress MLC and former Telangana National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) president Balmoor Venkat went further, demanding that police book Tata Madhu under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. “Protesting is a democratic right; anyone can protest. But it is the responsibility of the legislators to show respect to the chair, Speaker and Chairman. Using abusive language against the Speaker is absolutely wrong. And KCR, yesterday in his BRSLP meeting, did he train them to talk in such a way? So we demand KCR to come out and speak about this and to condemn these words which were spoken by his legislative council member, Tata Madhu. If not, it will be considered that KCR is intentionally training their people and telling them to use such kind of language, and we condemn this. We demand that the police department file an SC/ST atrocity case against Tata Madhu,” Venkat said.

Tata Madhu rejects claims

Tata Madhu, for his part, rejected the charge that he had insulted the Speaker or Council Chairman, saying he holds the chair in the highest regard and that his remarks were directed only at police officials who he alleged had manhandled him at the gate. He claimed an officer grabbed him by the throat, pulled at his trousers and stepped on him with a boot, knocking off his spectacles in the process, and that his comments came as he tried to free himself. He pointed to his own background of activism with a Left party among Dalit and tribal communities, including time in jail, and said if anyone owed an apology it was the chief minister, citing past unparliamentary remarks by A Revanth Reddy that he said had gone unaddressed.

Tata Madhu also questioned whether any rule or dress-code guideline barring T-shirts had ever been issued to legislators, and said marshals, not police at the gate, were the ones authorised to enforce House decorum.

Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy was reported to be considering separate action against the MLC.