'Opposition cannot be threatened': BRS fires back at Seethakka over corruption row remarks

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 12 (ANI): Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy on Sunday strongly reacted to Telangana Minister Seethakka's alleged remarks against those making corruption allegations against her, terming the statement 'highly derogatory', 'irresponsible', and damaging to democratic decorum.
"The statements of Minister Seethakka that she would beat with chappal those who are making allegations of corruption against her is highly derogatory and irresponsible in nature," he said to ANI, adding that the opposition's right to question cannot be suppressed through threats or intimidation.
"BRS party strongly condemns this, and you cannot suppress the opposition voice of questioning you on these kinds of issues by issuing such threats," he added.
He said, "A minister is expected to uphold the dignity and decorum of the office she holds, adding that issuing threats and using such language would not help in any manner but instead would harm both the minister's image as well as the image of the government."
Reddy further said, "When you are in public life, you are expected to understand, rather tolerate the scrutiny and the criticism from the people or the opposition," adding that the use of abusive language and threatening tone reflects poorly on ministers and the ruling party.
Taking a jibe at Congress, he stated, "And this kind of statement, this kind of abusive language, and this kind of behaviour shows the Congress ministers' intolerance, and people are watching this."
He also said that he was surprised that even during recent Assembly sessions, several ministers have been resorting to similar language and issuing threats, raising concerns over the conduct inside and outside the House.
"I am really surprised; is the authority of the Speaker restricted only to the Assembly to maintain the language or accountability, or even when they are in public? This should be clarified," he said.
Ravula Sridhar Reddy strongly demanded that the minister apologise, saying, "Such threats are not correct in public life, in a democratic setup, in a democratic system like that, and you need to maintain the decorum."
He further said that if there is confidence in the decisions and tenders under scrutiny, the government should either ignore the criticism or order an inquiry and come out clean instead of resorting to threats.
"At least now she realises the, you know, mistake that she has made, and if you think there is nothing wrong in the tenders that were actually put for scrutiny and criticism, either ignore it or order an inquiry, come out clean," he elaborated.
"But only by issuing threats, it clearly shows that you are intolerant and something is wrong with the entire system or the tender process that is under allegations," he said. (ANI)