By disqualifying two senior Janata Dal (UP) MPs – Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar – from Rajya Sabha a couple of days ago, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has landed Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao in an embarrassing position.
Venkaiah, in fact, issued an official order, asking the presiding officers of all the states and even Lok Sabha to decide the issues of disqualification of MPs within a period of three months.
He opined that the Speakers of the legislative bodies (assemblies or councils or Lok Sabha) should not keep in pending or drag for years the petitions of disqualification of defected legislators or MPs.
“Such petitions go to the root of the democratic functioning. The presiding officers should not act in a way to save the membership of defectors or try to save the government which enjoys majority only because of such defectors.
Such a delay is tantamount to subverting the essence of the anti-defection law by allowing a member to continue as MP or MLA or MLC without facing the consequences of defection,” he said.
More than anybody else, Venkaiah’s ruling strongly applies to Naidu and KCR, who had blatantly encouraged defection of MLAs from the Opposition parties without bothering ask them to resign from their memberships.
As many as 24 MLAs of YSRC defected to the TDP in Andhra, while nearly 30 MLAs defected from other parties into the TRS.
But can Venkaiah issue such a direction directly to Naidu and KCR, for whom he had been a friend, philosopher and guide before becoming the Vice President?
In any case, Venkaiah has exposed Naidu and KCR with just one ruling and pushed them into moral embarrassment.
