YSRCP calls for bandh on Friday

New Delhi, Feb 13 : Protesting against the mockery of democracy within the ramparts of the Parliament, YSR Congress has given a State-wide bandh call on Friday and said that it will fight till the last post besides mustering the support of all opposition parties to stall the division Bill.

“The Speaker announcing that the Bill is tabled without taking into consideration the opinion of the House is a sheer mockery of democracy which has happened ironically in the Parliament where democracy has to be safeguarded. We condemn the manner in which the Bill has entered the House and it is a black day for parliamentary democracy,” YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy told reporters here on Thursday.

The Chair announcing that the Bill is tabled within 10 seconds of her arrival shows that the Centre has no respect for democratic values and wants to push through its agenda by hook or crook and to sternly oppose this we call for Andhra Pradesh bandh on February 14.

The way Congress is going ahead with its divisive politics is very shameful and Congress President Sonia Gandhi is behaving worse than Hitler and carrying out the division in an authoritarian and unilateral manner.

“Today in broad daylight democracy has been slaughtered. I could hear Madam Speaker telling that democracy is being mocked. But within 10 seconds, even without taking the opinion of the House, she declares that the Bill is introduced. Democracy is thus mocked here with this act. Fifteen out of the seventeen Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh were suspended before dividing their State.

We have given a letter to the Speaker condemning the proceedings and BJP leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Tambi Dorai of AIADMK, Sharad Yadav, Smajwadi Party members were also with me to protest against this undemocratic practice. We have in fact walked out of the House in protest,” he said.

We will fight till the last post and take up every form of agitation. We will explore legal option as well as the apex court cannot call the petition pre-mature this time after seeing what has happened in the House. In the next two days, I will lobby with all opposition parties and BJP as well to garner support for a united state.

“This draconian policy of the Centre should be stopped here itself or else it will become a bad precedent and the day is not far away when any party with 272 seats in the Parliament will divide any state, be it Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Uttar Pradesh for their whims and fancies or for political gains. Unless we stand up and protest against this injustice, democracy will perish.

By Monday when the Lok Sabha meets again, we will ensure to gather enough support to stall the Bill and the undemocratic division,” he said.

When asked about the fisticuffs of MPs in the well of the House, he said the members involved in the scuffle were Venugopal Reddy and Ramesh Rathore and both belong to TDP. N Chandrababu Naidu has been whipping regional passion and has been unleashing their MPs instead of taking a concrete stand, he said.  INN