A delegation of women lawmakers from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Friday lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Commission for Women (NCW), alleging that they were subjected to “indecent” and “humiliating” treatment by police personnel at the Telangana assembly entrance on September 7.
She alleged that women MLAs were pulled by their hair while male legislators were pushed to the ground and trampled upon during the confrontation with police. Why were we not allowed inside the assembly? She questioned the authority under which the legislators were stopped from entering the assembly and demanded to know who had issued the instructions to the police. She also claimed that a complaint had been lodged at the director general of police’s office regarding the alleged attack on women MLAs, but no action had followed. Sabitha further alleged that the action against the BRS legislators was carried out at the direction of chief minister A Revanth Reddy.
“We have been in politics for nearly 30 years.
Speaking to reporters after submitting the complaint, Sabitha said the incident had caused “great pain and humiliation” to the women legislators. The police highhandedness was part of a “conspiracy” to prevent the BRS MLAs from entering the assembly, she said. Recalling the incident at the assembly gates, Sabitha alleged that the situation was unprecedented and compared it to a “Kaurava Sabha,” referring to the episode in the Mahabharata associated with the humiliation of Draupadi. She said former minister and MLA G Jagadish Reddy had fallen during the melee involving police personnel and had suffered a rise in his blood pressure. When we specifically requested that at least the women MLAs be permitted to enter, the police did not listen to us,” she said. Neither the government nor the assembly authorities had provided an explanation, according to her. Sabitha said the BRS legislators had been demanding action against those responsible for the alleged assault for the past three days but had received no response. She said the BRS had expected the alleged assault to be discussed during the assembly session and that the chief minister, the minister for legislative affairs and the DGP would respond to the incident. “However, nobody spoke about it,” she alleged.
