Etela Rajender suspended from Telangana Assembly

HYDERABAD: BJP MLA Etela Rajender was on Tuesday suspended from the Telangana Legislative Assembly for the remainder of the session. Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy announced his suspension in the House for his alleged remarks against the Chair.

Rajender was accused of referring to Srinivasa Reddy as a 'robot' in one of his earlier speeches. Rajender, while criticising the state government during heated debates between the treasury and opposition benches, reportedly made this remark against the Speaker.

The speaker is learnt to have decided to suspend the BJP legislator for the latter's failure to tender an apology for his comments. Srinivasa Reddy in his brief announcement said that the suspension would be applicable for the entire session.

Reacting to his suspension, Rajender asked the Speaker why he was not being given an opportunity to speak on this matter. The speaker then asked the member to leave the House immediately.

Minister Prashanth Reddy defended the Speaker's action, saying that the decision was meant to uphold the dignity of the House. He said that Rajender failed to tender an apology to the Speaker for his comments. Chief Whip Vijay Bhaskar appealed to Etela Rajender to withdraw his comments.

Tension prevailed for a brief while when the police surrounded Rajender after he came out of the Assembly. Amid a heavy posse of policemen, he was later escorted to his residence in Shamirpet.

Etela Rajender, later in a press release, alleged that he was being banished from the Assembly ever since he returned to the House after winning the Huzurabad by-elections. The TRS government is trying to gag him, he said vowing that he would not rest until he brought down the government. Claiming that the ruling party and its government was conspiring against him for well over an year, he asserted that he would not be cowed down by these tactics. He also expressed his anger over the police and advised them not to behave like slaves.

BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay also condemned the suspension of Etela Rajender from the Assembly. He said that those who failed to fulfill promises would only be called robots. He also wondered how it was a crime to call someone a robot outside the Assembly. "If a statement made outside the House can anger you, what about the statement of Chief Minister KCR on the floor of the House where he called Narendra Modi a facist PM? Don't you think it equally angers us?," he shot back.

He said that one BJP MLA was sent to jail and another was suspended from the House purely because they were exposing the failures of the TRS government.