Come to the Assembly, Said Congress. Then Suspended It

The Telangana Congress government had a modest suggestion for the BRS: stop protesting outside the Assembly and bring the questions inside. D. Sridhar Babu reportedly made the invitation on 6 September. The BRS accepted, arriving with protests, objections and the usual parliamentary seasoning. Three days later, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar suspended 21 BRS MLAs for the remainder of the Monsoon Session. Some reports counted 22, because even the suspension list apparently needed a supplementary schedule.

The sequence is a complete governing philosophy in miniature. Congress says: come inside and question us. The Opposition comes inside and questions it. Congress then removes the Opposition and calls the resulting silence discipline. This is not parliamentary management; it is a group project in which the government deletes the other participants and awards itself full marks.

The immediate quarrel involved protests near K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s Erravelli farmhouse, allegations concerning police conduct involving BRS women legislators, and the reported “purification” ritual that followed. The BRS did not exactly arrive carrying the spirit of a quiet constitutional seminar. But the government’s answer was not to keep the argument inside the House, test the allegations, and get on with Telangana’s business. It turned the Assembly into a disciplinary corridor, then acted surprised that substantive issues had been pushed aside by turmeric water, police conduct and competing accusations of insult.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy warned that, if the BRS continued its “arrogant” conduct, its leaders’ “lives will be reduced to dust”. That is a remarkable contribution from a Chief Minister presiding over a government that appears to regard scrutiny as a public nuisance. Revanth Reddy is energetic when threatening political opponents, Sridhar Babu is energetic when inviting them into the House, and the Speaker is energetic when showing them the exit. The administration has found a perfect division of labour.

The Congress government did not restore order. It removed the witnesses. A legislature without an Opposition is not a successful Assembly; it is a press release with microphones.