'The BJP is bulldozing parliamentary democracy'

'Why wasn't my no-confidence motion tabled in the House?'

IMAGE: Opposition members protest during the ongoing Budget session in the Lok Sabha. Photograph: Television grab via PTI Photo

Y V Subba Reddy -- the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh's Ongole constituency -- was the first to table the no-confidence motion against the National Democratic Alliance government led by Prime Minister Narendra D Modi.

The Telugu Desam Party joined in later with a similar motion.

Reddy expressed his displeasure when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow his motion to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday, March 16, citing 'lack of order' in the House.

The Ongole MP said the YSR Congress, despite having just five MPs in Lok Sabha, wanted to highlight the grievances of the people of Andhra Pradesh and how the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally till Friday, the TDP, had hoodwinked the people of the state.

"For us the interests of the people of Andhra is of utmost importance and it is our duty to expose those who cheated the people of the state," Reddy told Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore .

Why did you table a no-confidence motion against the Modi government?

For the last four years, the NDA government has done a lot of injustice to the people of Andhra Pradesh.

They had made several big promises like building the capital of Andhra Pradesh, giving the state a special status, build metros in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, but failed to live up to the people's expectations.

Both the BJP and the TDP, as a constituent of the NDA, together had promised these things to the people of the state.

For four years now nothing has been delivered.

We too have been fighting for justice to be done to the people of Andhra Pradesh, but now that nothing is coming out of it, the YSR Congress decided to express its displeasure with both the BJP and TDP and let the people know how they have been deceived by these two parties.

Isn't it ironical that the TDP too has joined the no-confidence bandwagon?

The TDP is just doing drama. Were they sleeping for the last four years despite being in the NDA?

They too failed miserably to put any pressure on the Modi government.

The people of Andhra Pradesh would want to know what the TDP did for these four years.

N Chandrababu Naidu (the Andhra Pradesh chief minister) is doing this (spliting from the NDA) to take advantage of the anti-BJP mood in the state.

He is just playing games now, but the people of Andhra are far wiser than he thinks.

What will the YSR Congress gain from this no-confidence motion? Everybody knows it will fall flat on its face when put to vote...

We know that we are just five MPs! But we want to raise the voice of five crore (50 million) Andhra people. We want to highlight how and why injustice has been done to them.

The entire country should know how the BJP is treating the people of the state.

They should know the reason why the promises made to them in Parliament and before the elections were not delivered.

There is talk that the YSR Congress will drift towards the BJP in the TDP's absence. Is that a possibility?

No way.

If we had to join hands with the BJP, why would we table a no-confidence motion against them?

For us, the interests of the people of Andhra are of utmost importance and it is our duty to expose those who cheated the people of the state.

We will only support those who will categorically promise and actually deliver a special status to Andhra Pradesh after the 2019 elections.

With this no confidence motion, are you then preparing for the 2019 general as well as assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh?

We don't have any strategy as of now apart from the interests and rights of the people of my state. Elections are not at all on our minds right now.

As the main Opposition party it is our duty to fight against injustice.

The Lok Sabha Speaker did not allow the motion to be tabled in the House...

They (the Speaker and the government) disallowed my no-confidence motion stating that there was no order in the House.

The NDA government is bulldozing parliamentary democracy.

The reason I am saying this is because the other day the government passed the Finance Bill despite chaos in Parliament with as many as 100 MPs in the well of the House.

The House was not in order at all that day (March 14, when the Finance Bill was passed) too.

If they could bulldoze the (discussion on) Finance Bill amid such disorder, why wasn't my-no confidence motion tabled in the House? They can't have two different sets of rules for similar situations.

This only means that they (the government) did not want my no-confidence motion to come up in the House.

They are making a mockery of our democracy.