During his last speech at the historic Central Hall of the old Parliament or Samvidhan Sadan on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about how creation of states such as Uttrakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh was celebrated but the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh led ‘only to bitterness.’
Later, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a sharp swipe at PM Modi’s remark. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Gandhi in Telugu said that PM Modi’s statement is ‘insulting’ to the very existence of Telangana. In English, he used the hashtag #PMshouldApologisetoTelangana. But it seems PM Modi was not referring to the birth of Telangana but the events that Parliament witnessed when the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill was tabled back in 2014.
February 13, 2014 – A blot on India’s parliamentary democracy
It was on February 13 in 2014 when the Lok Sabha in the old Parliament building witnessed unprecedented scenes that resembled a battlefield. On the day, then Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was set to table the ‘Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill’. When then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar asked the Home Minister to table the Bill in the house, the Opposition led by the BJP started protesting. They said that no prior information is given to them. Suddenly, then Congress lawmaker L Rajagopal, who was in the well, whisked out a pepper spray can and started spraying it all over. Before that, he also smashed a glass on the table that startled the MPs. The Vijayawada MP was not alone. Other anti-Telangana MPs (mostly from Congress) rushed to the well. TDP’s Venugopal Reddy was seen clashing with Congress leaders. Not only the glass on the secretary general was smashed, screens on the tables were also broken.
While Meira Kumar kept urging the MPs to maintain decorum, many started coughing as the pepper spray started affecting them. The Lok Sabha Speaker adjourned the House and was quickly taken away. Then Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was also taken out of the Lok Sabha safely by the watch-and-ward squad member at the same time.
The ruckus didn’t stop there. Other Congress leaders chased Rajagopal even as he continued spraying the canister in the Lok Sabha. He was caught mid-way when he ran towards the Opposition benches by another MP Vinnu Pandey. An ugly brawl broke out between them. Fists were flying elsewhere too. Mics were uprooted during the scuffle between anti-Telangana MP M Venugopal Reddy and Raj Babbar.
Much later, house marshals managed to stop Rajagopal and evicted him out of the Lok Sabha by force. After 2 pm, when the House proceedings resumed, Meira Kumar suspended 16 lawmakers. Later that week on February 18, Lok Sabha took up the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill. Two days later, the Rajya Sabha passed the Telangana Bill. L Rajagopal, the Vijayawada MP who was behind the dastardly pepper spray episode, resigned from the Lok Sabha after Parliament passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill.
What happened after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh?
The Congress that had spearheaded the reorganization bill couldn’t save its electoral fortune. The party was struggling after the death of YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Though it succeeded in Parliament, it suffered brutal loss both in Andhra Pradesh as well as Telangana as it was voted out of power in the state polls of May 2014.