VIJAYAWADA: Expressing anguish over being referred by the Chair of the Rajya Sabha as “mad and laughing stock” for standing silently in the well holding a placard with slogan ‘Help Andhra Pradesh’, Congress Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao has said he feels proud for being mad for the sake of people of the State. In a three-page letter addressed to Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, who was in the chair on Friday and made the comments against him, Rao said he was ‘mad’ for the cause of people of Andhra Pradesh and sincerely wish that all the members of Rajya Sabha and those holding the positions in the Central Government shall share the same madness in implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act and do justice to the people of the State.
“Sir, I don’t mind being a ‘laughing stock’ in putting up a fight to prevent the country’s highest legislative body becoming a ‘laughing stock’ by not fulfilling the constitutional commitments to Andhra Pradesh and letting the people down,” he wrote in the letter. On Friday, when the Rajya Sabha met for the day, KVP stood in the well silently holding the placard with the slogan ‘Help Andhra Pradesh’ even as Samajwadi Party member and AAP members stormed into the well raising loud slogans over Kishanganj violence.
Deputy Chairman Kurien asked him to vacate the well, but Rao refused to budge. Kurien then asked Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to call Rao back to his seat.
“What is he (Rao) doing? Can somebody do like this? Has he gone mad? Please call him (back to seat),” Kurien said and even threatened action against Rao. When the House met for Question Hour after the first adjournment, AAP members again stormed into the well and Congress members joined them. Even when heated exchanges were taking place, Rao remains unmoved, silently holding the placard. Pointing out at him, the Deputy Chairman said Rao was doing nothing more than standing as a “bodyguard.”
Kurien chided Rao saying if he has “some sense”, he should go to his seat as he was “becoming a laughing stock” as people were watching. Rao, however, did not react but only raised the placard a bit higher. Congress members Jairam Ramesh and Bhubaneswar Kalita walked up to Rao to have a word with the agitating member, but he did not budge.
Following the incident, Rao wrote a letter to Kurien, in which he said for the first time in life, he could no console himself with a deep feeling of depression and dejection. He said he felt ashamed of being the Member of Parliament as he was compelled to stay as a silent spectator during the bifurcation of erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh in the name of Parliamentary customs and conventions and now being referred by the Chair as ‘mad and laughing stock’, solely because of democratically demanding the Union Government to implement the AP Reorganisation Act and fulfil the constitutional commitments made to the people of the State during the passage of the AP Reorganisation Bill.
In his letter to Kurien, written on February 3, Rao wished he had been “really mad” and acted accordingly to stop the passage of the Bill for bifurcation of the State four years ago.Rao in the letter cited various occasions, where his efforts to draw the attention of the House to the very serious issues regarding the interests of AP were either evaded or denied. “I wish I would have been mad rather than sitting idle in the House witnessing the injustice being done to the State by the Centre, which has the constitutional obligation to fulfil the promises made during the process of bifurcation.”