Hyderabad: Reiterating that they would keep away from the assembly session unless action is initiated against the turncoats, YSR Congress has said that the Speaker has to upkeep the decorum of the Chair and upkeep parliamentary democracy instead of Opposition being blamed for not participating in the House proceedings.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Party MLA G Srikanth Reddy said, "We affirm that we are not boycotting the assembly sessions and are very much in favour of attending the proceedings but the Speaker should initiate action against the turncoats who moved to treasury benches.
The contention that the matter is in court cannot be accepted as the Speaker had time and again said that the legislature is supreme and need not take into consideration the legal rulings. We need not abide by the court directives and the House is supreme was what he said in many earlier occasions.
"When our Party MLA RK Roja was suspended and the issue was taken to courts, the same Speaker has ruled that the courts cannot dictate terms to the legislature and the Speaker need not abide by the court directive and to that matter the Speaker’s ruling cannot be challenged in a court of law.
When it comes to the action against the 21 MLAs who crossed floor, the same Speaker tells that the matter was in courts and this is not in concord with the high office he is holding as the double standards stands exposed," he said.
We moved the court on the grounds of disqualification for switching sides and the Speaker was approached and there was no action from his side. If the Speaker initiates action against the defectors we will attend the assembly from tomorrow.
Instead the ruling party has been accusing us of running away from the assembly and the Chief Minister commenting that the state should become like Singapore where there is no Opposition is against the value system of parliamentary democracy, he said.
We have been pleading to take action against the defectors since long but no action was taken and one more MLA was added to the list of defectors and when our Party delegation when to submit a memorandum, the remarks were not in good taste.
There were cases filed against Chandrababu Naidu which did not stop from his role in the legislature. We moved the court to plead that no action was taken by the Speaker against the turncoats and our plea was not to take action against the Speaker, he said and reiterated that they would attend the assembly if action is initiated by the Chair against the defectors, he said.