Black T-shirts, locked gates, and a widening protest
BRS protests were reported across several Telangana districts after legislators were stopped at the Assembly and two MLCs were arrested over alleged remarks about the Speaker.
The Assembly gates were locked as protests spread across Telangana.
The Congress government in Telangana managed to turn black T-shirts into a larger political problem. BRS legislators arriving at the Assembly on September 7 were stopped at the gates after wearing shirts carrying anti-government slogans. Reports said K. T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, G. Jagadish Reddy and others were detained or arrested and taken to Telangana Bhavan. The BRS said the protest targeted the government’s 1,000-day record and unfulfilled promises. The claims about those promises have not been independently established in the available material.
Protests and road blockades were reported in Hyderabad, Siddipet, Suryapet, Medchal, Nalgonda, Karimnagar and other districts. Police detained protesters while clearing roads. On September 8, BRS MLCs Tata Madhusudan and B. Naveen Kumar Reddy were arrested over alleged remarks concerning Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar. The exact wording of those remarks was not available.
BRS leaders also alleged that police manhandled legislators, including women members. The Congress government has not publicly answered those allegations in the material reviewed. It has, however, objected to the alleged remarks concerning the Speaker. The police have supplied procedure; the government has supplied outrage over words. Telangana’s Assembly gates remain better at stopping elected representatives than stopping the argument outside.