Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker K R Suresh Reddy on Wednesday pulled up Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu for questioning his authority and showing 'disrespect to the chair.'
On the third day of the marathon debate on the no-trust motion tabled by the main opposition Telugu Desam Party, the speaker lost his cool when Naidu and other TDP members wildly gesticulated and made certain remarks against the chair.
A visibly hurt speaker told Naidu in an angry tone: "Yes, I am dictating. I am ordering you to sit down. You are putting the entire House to shame by such kind of behaviour."
Turning towards TDP member Nagam Janardhan Reddy, the speaker shot back: "You have been nagging me non-stop. How do you expect me to tolerate all this?"
"You are the leader of the opposition. But what is that you are talking? Every second you want to put the chair to scrutiny. You want to question the authority of the chair. Are you expressing no confidence in the chair or what? Why are you enacting this tamasha? The House has debated (the no-trust motion) for 17 to 18 hours, excluding the interventions. I have given you ample opportunity. But at every point of time, every minute, why do you want to put the chair to scrutiny? Then, how can the House function?" the speaker told Naidu.
The speaker reminded Naidu that "a heavy responsibility is cast, especially on the floor leaders, to control their members. You have to shoulder this responsibility. Instead, you are threatening me. There is a limit to tolerance. I am trying (to conduct the proceedings) to the best of my ability. This is not the way, finding fault all the time with the chair. Act with responsibility. I appeal to you to sit down."
Baffled by the strong reaction of the speaker whose authority cannot be questioned even by a court, Naidu silently resumed his seat.
This remark from the speaker came when Naidu complained that he was not given an opportunity to express himself and that the chair was behaving like a dictator.
The House witnessed pandemonium when the speaker announced that he had decided against the House adopting a resolution urging the chief justice of the high court for judicial inquiry by sitting judges into the assets of all the legislators.
Responding to the decision of the speaker, a few TDP members shouted 'drama' (possibly meaning that the government made the speaker give such a ruling, to avoid passing of the resolution). Naidu, however, wanted to intervene and argue in favour of the House passing a resolution.
When the speaker ruled out any debate on his ruling, Naidu gave vent to his anger.
Strongly reacting to the remark by TDP members that it was all a drama, Legislative Affairs Minister K Rosaiah said he never took part in a drama and on the contrary, the TDP members joined the party that was founded by a drama actor (N T Rama Rao).
Naidu said it was uncharitable on the part of the minister to refer to late N T Rama Rao, a top film star venerated by the entire world, as a drama actor.
Rosaiah clarified that he had never belittled NTR. He only said that NTR was first a stage artiste and later became a great actor in films also.